24th annual Hunger Games!
by ForeverAdrian
Summary: It's the 24th Annual Hunger Games. This story will be filled with terror, suspense, a slight bit of romance, and loads of cool chapter names. Come join the 24th Tributes in the adventure?
1. The Tributes

The Tributes.

D1:

-Juanita Alba

-Maximillium Rochester

D2:

-Glenn Elizabeth

-Sapphire Amely

D3:

-Sarah (Smo) Morford

-Joaquin Scardino

D4:

-Julietina Fox

-Corrosive Tanner

D5:

-Alexander Pastrana

-Desiree Story

D6:

-Izzy Bauer

-George Seibert

D7:

-Ann McDermott

-Derek France

D8:

-Hazel Nguyen

-Garth Spar

D9:

-Penelope Starr

-Manchester Emilio

D10:

-Arnaldo Armani

-Cookie Hannah

D11:

-Rosalina DiCaprio

-Bolt Wasterman

D12:

-Autumn Renee

-Halloween Meyer


	2. Let's get this started

**_Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games._**

**_A/N-Sorry this chapter is so short, I'm kind of new at this. So pleeeeease review and criticize me. You'll help me more than anything. Thank you. _**

**_Every chapter is going to have 5 different POV's of the 24 Tributes, so when the Games start you pick the first 5 POV's you want to see in the beginning, then we'll work from there!_**

**_Don't forget to review!_**

**_Love, ForeverAdrian._**

**Alexander Pastrana POV.**

I've always had problems connecting with, well, anyone. I've always been the one to sit quietly in the darkness while others talk about their current affairs. I've always been the one to lie alone in my parent's room while the warm droplets of rain fall down from the sky and hit the window, making a slight popping noise. I've always been the one that people look over, the one that is mostly frowned upon, the one that is mostly unappreciated. My 16 years of living have come to accept these facts, but my accepting hasn't saved me with my constant battle with depression, a depression that nobody knows about. Sure, people suspect that I suffer from it, but I never let myself show too much of my anxiety, emptiness, or loneliness. I hide it all with a smile. It's hard, yeah, but after 16 years, you get good at it.

Today is one of those days. My dad and I just got into an argument, my sister won't even pay attention to me, even though she did try to help when my dad was yelling at me for who knows what reason, and as of now, I'm lying on my parents bed, watching the skinny drops of water fall down from the sky.

Today is the day of the reaping. A day where families should be nothing but kind to each other, a day where all I should get are hugs and kisses, a day where I should be appreciated and acknowledged at least once.

But of course, that's not going to happen. My dad just left to go to work, leaving me and my sister a pot full of rice and bits of hot dogs, steaming, just waiting for us to dig in and eat the whole thing up. My dad has always been a good cook, and so has my mom. What am I good at?

My mom will be here in exactly an hour to pick us up and take us to the Reaping. That gives us just enough time to eat a little bit, take a shower, and get dressed. My parents don't treat this the right way. They're not even here with us. They should be comforting us, telling us that it's going to be alright. They should be telling us what to do if we get chosen, they should be giving us tips and advice, since, after all, they have seen more Games than we have. Is it that they just have more confidence that we won't get chosen? I'm hurt by their lack of caring, and level of apathy.

I skip the food and head towards the bathroom. This is going to be a long day.

**Glenn Elizabeth POV.**

Of course I'm scared. I'm _terrified. _I'm terrified every single reaping. Why? Because I know that if I get chosen, I'm dead. I don't think I would even make it past the first five hours. I see girls like me getting killed in the bloodbath all the time, or the few that do manage to escape, die just as quickly because they don't know how to climb a tree, or hunt for food, or throw a spear. It's so sad. Whenever I see those girls die, I die a little inside. Because I always think to myself, _that could be me._

I'm also sad by the fact that I'm wearing one of my best dresses to an event like this. This emerald green dress sure does my fiery red hair some justice, and I love the fact that if you look at it from an angle, you can see a hint of purple. Green and Purple, two of my favorite colors. I heard Green and Purple combined are also the most relaxing colors. But I'm pretty sure that's a myth, because I'm not relaxed one bit.

I hate most of the girls that I'm standing by. Most of them have called me fat and other nasty names before, and most of them have spread rumors about me too. I think the one in front of me even asked me if I was pregnant once. It really sucks, being one of the bigger, uglier girls from District 2, the best District out of all. I get made fun of a lot, I get pranks pulled on me a lot, and I've almost gotten into a few fights, but I never let any of that bring me down, because I know that one day, I'll find a way to get out of District 2, and when I'm out of here, I'll never look back.

The mayor goes up on stage and gives us all a big huge smile. His whitened teeth glimmering in the sunlight almost makes me blind, and his peach creamed colored skin makes him look like a circus freak. His hair is normal though, so I'll give him that.

He tells us the history of Panem. The natural disasters that apparently brought the great country that Panem used to be, America, to its knees. Apparently, once, years and years ago, it was the wealthiest country the world had ever known. You even had freedoms too. It all seems too good to be true though. I think "America" is all a trick designed by higher officials to get all our hopes up, that maybe someday, we can be prosperous. But we all know that is never going to happen.

"Ladies first!" He exclaims in his overly high voice. Wow, had I drifted off that much?

He sticks his short, pudgy hand into the ball and swishes around for a good two minutes, and then, pulls out one long, white slip of paper.

"District 2's female tribute for the 24th annual Hunger Games is, Glenn Elizabeth!"

I have to hear him say my name twice before the cruel reality sinks in. Glenn Elizabeth is me. Glenn Elizabeth is _me!_ One single tear falls from my eye as the mayor asks for volunteers. District 1, 2, and 4 are notorious for their large amounts of tributes being just volunteers, because volunteers are winners. They're considered the Gods and Goddesses of the Hunger Games. Girls that have been training for this moment will volunteer now. I'm just waiting for that one hand to go up, that one hand that will save my life.

But no one screams out that they want to volunteer, no hand has been raised, and no girl has walked up to the stage. Instead, I hear laughs and giggles from the girls around me, and after standing there in shock for a couple of seconds, the girl behind me pushes me onto the path going to the stage. I look back, another tear slowly slipping from the corner of my eye, and see almost all the girls laughing. I don't understand. How could this happen? There are girls that have been waiting for this moment ever since they were born! How could they just let this opportunity pass? I know why. Because I'm Glenn Elizabeth. The ugly fat girl from District 2 that doesn't really belong. My District, my people, want to see me die.

I feel another tear slip down my cheek as I walk to my death.

**George Seibert POV.**

I don't really know what to do as my mom and sister are holding me tightly, crying and kissing my forehead. I don't smile, I don't frown, and I don't cry with them, I just… sit here. My mom notices my lack of emotion and lets me go. She sits down right next to me in this comfy leather wine red sofa, and puts her hands on my shoulders. My sister lets go and sits down on my other side, putting her head on my back and weeping silently.

"George, I need you to listen to me now, okay?" She says; her eyes wide and sharp.

I nod my head and listen to what she has to say.

"Do you have any questions? About anything? If you do, please ask them now George, while we have time. I am almost positive I can answer almost any question you have." She says.

And that is true. If there's anything about my mom, she's observant. She probably pays more attention during every single Game's than anybody else does, and at some points it fascinates her so much, she even watches re runs when she is home by herself. I know she has the answer to all my questions, but I just have so much, and there is so little time.

"What should I do when I'm in the arena?" I ask her, trying to ignore the wet feeling on my back caused from my sisters tears.

"When the gong sounds, don't you even dare to go near the Cornucopia. Get a little bit of food, a little bit of water, and any bags or first aid kits that are close enough to you that you won't have to face the others. Once you do that, go close a source of water, but not too close, because other tributes won't be far behind. Keep a safe distance away from that source of water, but don't travel too far off to where you won't be able to find your way back. Also, fight only when you _need_ to. Don't ever start a fight, and if it can be avoided, avoid it. Be aware of any dangerous plants and animals. I've already seen too many smart tributes get killed off by the Capitols cruel mutations. Now, if the announcer announces a feast of some sort, do not by any means go to it unless you are absolutely starving. The feast is pretty much one of the climaxes for the games, that and the final two battle. So there's bound to be bloodshed."

"Time's up, mam." I hear a guard say as he approaches us.

"This is it George." My mom says, tears in her eyes again. "Good luck." She kisses me on my fore head and heads off, holding my still crying sister tightly.

I can feel my throat tighten and the all too common feeling of tears forming on my bottom eye lid.

Another guard walks in and waves at me to walk towards him.

"You're mentor wants to see you." He says. I see my district partner, Izzy Bauer I think her name is, walk inside my room but quickly walk out, as if she had made a mistake and meant to walk in a different room.

She won't make it long, I think to myself. She's only twelve.

**Ann McDermott POV.**

The train is huge and beautiful, but I don't pay much attention to it. I need to think of what my strategy is going to be during the games. Kill anything that breathes? Na, I'm not that cruel. Hide out until everyone else has died? Nope, I'll appear a weakling. Just try to survive and come as it may? Yeah, I think that one will work.

My strategy is no strategy. Just try to survive.

Some sort of attendant escorts me to my room, where I'll be staying for a little less than 24 hours until we reach the Capitol, where we will be staying for the next week or so. I don't know where my District partner is, and I don't really care. I don't want to get close to anyone during these Games. I've seen what it's like when allies have to go against each other, it's terrible to watch. I will never set myself up for that.

Derek looks like a nice kid. But he's not really that attractive. I know for a fact that I'm going to rack up a lot of sponsors purely on my looks, so I need to strategize with Derek in what he's going to do to impress the Capitol. He seems really funny; maybe he can work his charm when he gets interviewed? I don't know, I just know we need to think of something fast. We're not going to be buddy-buddy for long.

I sigh out loud and sit on the fluffy queen sized bed. Oh well, I think to myself. I'll figure something out.

**Halloween Meyer POV.**

The building in which were staying in is so, so beautiful. It _disgusts _me. The Capitol is all about beauty and elegance, and they're also all about making such ugly and unpleasant things like The Hunger Games beautiful and elegant. With its flashing lights, extravagant colors, and animalistic Capitol citizens, the Capitol sure does earn its title.

As I'm stepping out of the bus I already see some of our names posted up on these electrical bill boards. The Capitol never misses a beat, does it?

"Juanita Alba (D1|F) - $2,000." It reads. The betting's must have already started.

I'm rushed into this neon blue and grey building with my District partner, Autumn, and our Advisor, Stylists, and Mentor immediately rush us into an elevator before the Paparazzi can reach us.

Autumn is the most particular girl. She volunteered, first of all, for God knows what reason, and once she heard my name get called, she started squealing and jumping up and down with joy, but now, she won't even look at me. It's weird, but I guess its better that way. That way when I kill her, I won't feel so bad.

I plan on killing every single person in that arena. Killing has never even been a problem with me. I've killed before, I mean, it's the easiest little thing. Lucks on my side too. Murders barely ever get solved in District 12. You could even call me a… expert.

I just _love _the feeling of bones crushing underneath my bare hands, oh, and you know what my favorite part is? That feeling of false hope I give my victims right before I kill them.

"Sure, I'll let you go." I say to them. Their eyes always widen and they start screaming thank you's over and over again, and that's when I get an uncontrollable laughter, and their smiles quickly fade.

They know.

The elevator goes all the way up to floor 48 and slowly comes to a halt. We step out and are immediately shown to our rooms. While on the way, I see that we are the last Tributes to get here, because I see a lot of the Tributes already walking around, talking to others, and even crying. This looks like an interesting bunch too.

I'm going to have lots of fun.


	3. Enemies and Garbage Cans

_**I had 1 review on the first chapter! Oh, the joys of being a new author.**_

_**Anyways, review, review, review. I'm doing 5 different POV's each chapter until we get into the Games, then YOU get to pick which 5 POV's I'll be doing each chapter, until we get to the bare minimum ;)**_

_**Review who's your favorite so far. Don't just read!**_

_**Hugs, ForeverAdrian.**_

**Juanita Alba POV.**

Training. This is what I've been waiting for. This is the only time I'm going to have to prove to these little bitches that I am to be feared. Right here, right now, they will learn that Juanita plus a sword, equals the Victor of the 24th annual Hunger Games.

Everyone is accumulating into their own little groups now. The weaker ones are going to the Camouflage and rope booths. The alright ones are going to the spear throwing and wrestling booths, and the ones like me, the ones that actually have a chance of winning this thing, are going to the sword training and everything else than involves a weapon the size of our arms.

Maximillium and I approach the sword wielding booth, but I notice there's someone already there. Penelope was her name? Well, whoever that girl is, she's going to have to move. I must make the first impression. I have to make everyone in this room look at me and fear me; first thing.

I walk up behind her and poke her in the shoulder. She looks back at me for a second, but then looks away. The man holding the sword approaches her and sticks out the sword for her to grab, but right when she stretches her arm, I grab her shoulders and twist her around.

"Mademoiselle, move away from ze sword." I say in my perfect little French accent. I wonder if anybody has caught on that its fake. Oh well. My whole foreign girl in distress thing is so going to rack up the sponsors, or so I hope. I haven't been studying French for five months for nothing.

"Uh, what?" She asks in a confused tone.

"I say, move away from ze sword now." I say in an angrier voice. I need to be careful not to lose control and somehow slip my Panamese accent. Then my plan would be ruined and all my sponsors will be lost, and we all know the humiliation that would bring also. "The girl with the fake accent." I can see it now.

"Uh, no sorry. I was here first." She says, and turns back around.

I can almost feel smoke blasting out of my ears. Nobody defies me like that. I have never been told no in my life, and I don't expect it to be now from some random District 9 girl.

I grab the back of her hair and slam her down to the ground. She rolls around and tries to get herself back up, but I just easily kick her in the ribs, and send her back down.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She screams, clenching on to her ribs for dear life.

The entire room is silent now.

"Better now, oui?" I smile and turn back to the booth. All eyes are on me, with either a shocked or scared expression. Even the man holding the sword appears a little stunned. Wow, this is more than I could have ever asked for.

"You hand me the sword now, oui?"

**Derek France POV.**

Damn. That French girl is beast! The way she threw and kicked that Penelope girl! Hell yeah! The Games haven't ever started yet and people are already starting to get into fights! Man, this is awesome! Oh, and the fact that she's French blows my mind, because my last name is uh, France!

I'm in the edible plant booth with Glenn Elizabeth. She's pretty much my only friend as of now. But hey, I'm not complaining, Glenn is actually really cool. I can't believe what her District did to her, I mean, I know District 2 has a reputation for being the cruelest District, but that's downright awful. If my District did that to me, I'd just kill myself.

"Are you listening?" Glenn asks while the instructor is showing us all the different poisonous berries.

"Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking about other things." I say, half smiling.

"Okay then." She says, giggling to herself.

She has such a cute smile, and such a soothing laugh. She's so pretty too. With her bright red hair and pink fair skin and hazel eyes, she's a beauty!

We've already made an alliance. I asked her right away too. I asked her within five minutes of knowing her. One thing I don't want to do is fool around. My goal was to get an alliance right off the bat and I did. I guess I can put a check next to that. Now, the next thing I have to do is look stunning during the chariot rides and have a successful interview, and of course, the last thing I have to do is, well, survive.

"Hello?" I snap back into reality and see Glenn staring at me, laughing. "You have no idea what he just said, do you?"

"Nope. Not a clue." I say back, laughing.

Now both of us are laughing, and I don't know why because nothing we said or did was particularly funny, but I guess were laughing because were so in shock, and were so scared, we have nothing else to do but to laugh alongside our only friend. And that is very hard to come by in The Hunger Games.

This moment is truly priceless. 

**Penelope Starr POV.**

I'm so _angry. _That Juanita girl had no right to do that to me. No right at all! I wasn't asking for any trouble, I just wanted a simple sword lesson! Is that too much to ask?

I left the training center. Fuck that, I am not by any means staying in a room with _her. _And nobody even defended me either! I had to stand up and walk out of the room, by myself. Selfish brats.

I'm up in my room now, sitting alone, eating a Benedict Burger one of the Avoxe's brought me. My revenge on Juanita is going to be quite simple. Make it to at least the final 10 with her, and when it seems like sweet victory for her, I'll kill her. Simple as that.

I look out the window and notice that it's raining. Rain. What a beautiful thing. I don't know why, but rain always seems to comfort me. It reminds me of home, oddly enough. I wonder what the arena is going to be like. I hope there's rain, lots of it. There's nothing more comforting to me than rain to me. The way the cold drops just splash onto your skin, soothing you instantly. Promising another day, promising life to all the plants and animals out there. Ah, I love it.

I hear a knock on my door and immediately drop my Benedict burger on my plate. Startled, I walk up to my door and lay my ear on it.

"Who is it?" I ask, with a slightly nervous tone.

"Hazel and Cookie!" Hazel says, with her sweet little high voice.

"Oh, come in!" I say, unlocking the door.

I sit on my bed and lay my plate aside. Cookie and Hazel walk in and start expecting the room.

Hazel and Cookie are the only people I've actually tried being friendly with. They're both really nice, but they have completely different personalities. Cookie is a crazy, out-going girl, that doesn't even know what's going on most of the time, and Hazel is this petite Asian girl, who knows everything about anything. I wish I could be as smart as her. She's incredibly shy though, but sometimes that's a good thing.

"Are you okay?" Hazel asks, her usually dull eyes making a worried expression.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" I ask her, obviously knowing why.

Juanita.

"Well," Hazel trails off, trying to find the words.

"Because Juanita beat your ass!" Cookie screams while a chunk of my Benedict burger hangs out of her mouth.

"She didn't beat my ass, Cookie, she pulled me down to the ground, and kicked me once. Okay? That's it." I say, slightly annoyed.

Cookie shrugs her shoulders and takes another bite of my Benedict burger. Ewh, that's so gross.

"Did you see a nurse or something? It looked like she kicked you pretty hard." Hazel says. If it's one thing that I've learned about Hazel since I met her a couple days ago is that she worries about absolutely _everything._

"I'm not hurt Hazel, thanks for your concern though." I say. I stand up and look over at Hazel and Cookie.

"Well, what booth should we go to first? We're going to need a lot of training if we're going to even make it past the first day." I say, putting my hands on my hips.

They both smile.

Alliance confirmed.

**Arnaldo Armani POV.**

I've been in the Rope and Axe handling booth the whole time. I don't know why either. I just have this sudden fascination with Ropes and Axes all of a sudden. It kind of makes me feel like my old childhood hero, Indiana Jones. God how I looked up to him. He was literally my everything. I would watch his movies hours and hours upon end, and then I would act out my favorite scenes in front of my own family. Ha, it was great. I miss those times so much.

I think that every tribute here has a chance to win, but some, of course, aren't taking this seriously, and aren't paying that much attention to the training sessions. Like that Penelope girl who left right after she got kicked by Juanita. That shows weakness. Now everybody in this room will know she's an easy target. A target I plan on hitting if I ever see her. I am actually planning on killing, but only to the ones that deserve it. Like Penelope.

"Attention, Attention please." A slim, sick looking man says as he walks in through the French doors.

"This concludes today's training session. You will have another one tomorrow and a brief one the next day for those who wish. After that, the chariot rides and interviews, and, at last, the 24th annual Hunger Games." He looks around. His hands are on his back and his chest is sticking out noticeably. His though looking physique doesn't flatter his bleach blond hair and snow white skin.

"Do we have any questions?" He says again, looking around the room. Looking at every single one of us. It's like his eyes are looking into our very souls.

"Very well then." He says. He takes one last look at us and starts backing away. He whispers something to the guard next to him and they both start laughing, and with one last cruel smile to all of us, he's gone.

I can feel my skin crawl right up my back. That man is noticeably evil.

All the men and women at the booth immediately start cleaning up and closing their booths. I start walking towards the doors when I hear a familiar voice shout my name.

"Arnaldo!" She says, coming up from behind me and putting her arms on my shoulders.

It's Cookie!

I turn around and give her a big smile and another hug. It's no secret Cookie and I like each other. We just haven't told anybody, or admitted it to each other in that case.

"What's up?" I say casually, noticing that the only people in the room now are Cookie, Penelope, the Asian girl from District 8, and me.

"I need to have a serious talk with you about something." She says in a semi-flirtatious voice.

"Well what is it?" I ask.

"Be in an alliance with Penelope, me, and Hazel." She puts her arms around my neck, but now since we're facing each other, she leans up close to me, like if to give me a kiss.

"What?" I say angrily, pushing her off. "Alliance, with them?"

"Well, yeah." She says quietly. She lifts her hand up and tries to touch my cheek but I push it away. Cookie and I agreed since the Reaping that it was going to be just me and her. That was it. Nobody else. But of course, knowing Cookie, it went inside one ear, and came out the other. And of all people, it had to be _them?_

"Arnaldo." She mumbles, taken back.

"There's no way in _hell_ I am going to be in an alliance with those two!" I scream at her. I look behind Cookie and notice Penelope walking towards us with an angry look on her face.

"We're through Cookie. Good luck in the Games." I look over at Penelope and Hazel. "It looks like you're going to need it."

Cookie, my dear friend, you have just put a giant target on your back.

If there's one type of person I can't stand, it's a traitor. And that is what she is.

**Sarah Morford POV.**

I hear a lot of shouting behind me but I don't even bother looking. I'm completely apathetic to everything that's going on around me. I've already made myself throw up three times today. And I'm not stopping there. Throwing up makes me feel like I'm cleansing my body from all the anxiety and all the depression I have welled deep inside my brain.

God, I am so screwed up.

I know putting on a good weight now is vital to my survival in the Games, but I just can't bring myself to eat one single thing. If I do, I'll throw it up. Like that Capri Sun I drank earlier, yeah, six minutes later it was down the drain. Sixty calories in that bitch!

I did fairly well in remembering all the poisonous bugs, plants, and fish that I might come across. And I think I know my fair share of edible plants too. I didn't even bother going to any of the weapon booths. They were flooded with all those douche bags from District 1, 2, and 4. I didn't feel like wasting my time so I thought I might as well go to something just as useful.

I'm not going to be in an alliance with anybody. I think that's just a whole bunch of bullshit and that people should just get over themselves and give up hope. There is only one winner, and there will always be _one _winner.

I know I won't make it long, but I'm sure as hell not going to die in the bloodbath. If I'm going to participate in the Hunger Games, I'm going to make myself noticeable. I don't know how, but I'm going to do something no one else has ever done before. Hey, you never know. I might even rack up some sponsors by doing so; because I'm sure as hell I have none as of now.

I don't know what the arena will be like this year. They never give hints, so it's always a surprise. Last year they did a frozen wasteland, so will this year's be a scorching desert? It's hard to tell. Very seldom do I ever guess right. I just hope it's somewhere manageable. Like a forest of some sort, or a jungle or something. It would be total hell if I had to be in a place where it was cold or boiling hot 24/7.

I'm pretty sure my mom would be happy to see me die. She treats me like garbage beneath her feet, and always puts my brothers before me, even though I'm the oldest. Just thinking about her makes my blood boil. Basically, she's just a really big bitch and I hate her. And I don't even know why I'm thinking about her now, because I shouldn't. Thinking about her makes me angry, makes me wanna _kill someone._ But of course I'd never do that. Unless I had to.

You know who else I hate? Joaquin Scardino. I just wanna bomb his house, that's how much I hate him. I hate the way he walks, the way he turns his head to the right and presses his tongue against his right cheek, I hate the way he talks and, and his _laugh_. Yuck, it makes me sick. It was pretty much a blessing that he got chosen as my district partner, because now I'm going to have the satisfaction of killing him ever so slowly.

"Hey Sarah, I like your shoes." Joaquin says as he passes me in the hall.

I run to the nearest trash can and puke.


	4. Is it hot in here, or is it just me?

_**Read the disclaimer on the first chapter, thanks!**_

_**Wohooo, I got one review! Awesome :D**_

_**Thanks to Fifidear. That made my day. Thank you thank you thank you.**_

_**The Hunger Games are soon approaching, but not yet! I might change some things too, so don't get bent out of shape about it, k? **_

_**REVIEW! And tell me who's your favorite so far!**_

_**Love and other nice feelings, ForeverAdrian.**_

**Manchester Emilio POV.**

That cat fight yesterday was… hot. I know they were only fightin' for a few seconds but damn! That's what I'm talkin' about! And the Games haven't even started yet! That Juanita girl totally owned that other girl, and I have this sick feeling she will own many other people too. Just thinking about it gives me goose bumps, but good ones!

I'm in the trail tactic booth as of now, but I'm probably going to the long distance running booth soon. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's running. I have lungs and legs of steel, and I can be running for hours and hours on end without even getting tired. I don't know where I got that ability from though, since my dad is a tired old man and my mother does nothing but cook all day, so it must have been a gift from the Gods.

I know I'm going to win the Games. I've already been given signs from the forces above indicating my win. The way the Capitol citizens have been greeting me and taking pictures with me, the way other guys move out of the way when they see me walking towards a booth, why, even this morning when I turned on the radio, a song called "All I do is Win" came on! I must be an idiot not to realize what's going on!

I'm really not_ that_ into myself though. But if you're hot, and you know you're going to win something like The Hunger Games, everything you _say _is going to sound cocky and prudent. But I have every right to brag now. I'm in my element. Only the hottest and the strongest win, well, most of the time, and we all know I've got both of those things. All I'm doing is facing the facts early, really.

I listen to the man talk about how to set up a fox trap, which is running around in all different directions so that your pursuer won't follow your footsteps, and walk off. I should probably try to learn something about some sort of weapon, or what types of food are edible, or how to set up traps, but that all sounds so incredibly _boring, _and with the sponsors I'll be racking up, I doubt I'll even need to scavenge three feet in front of me.

I wait in line in the long distance running booth. They're doing races now apparently. You against the instructor and as of now, the instructor looks like he's pretty much winning every single race. That's really sad, because were young, and strong, and he's an adult, he's probably been running every day of his life _and_ he still manages the beat these weaklings! I don't get it? How the hell did I get chosen with the rest of these kids?

After about 10 minutes, I'm up, and I'm more than ready to prove him wrong. The look on his face just flat out shows that he expects that I'm like the others, but I'm most certainly not and I will prove him _wrong._

We get in our running positions. My eyes set on the fake cardboard cornucopia set roughly a mile away.

"_Keep your eye on the prize Manchester and nothing more. Lose your concentration and you will lose it all. We all believe in you, we all know you can do this. Now prove us right." _

My coach's last words of wisdom just set it when the buzzer sounded and I'm off! I'm immediately ahead of the instructor, and the fake cornucopia just seems to be getting closer and closer, when the instructor suddenly passes me by, out of nowhere! How did he, how did he do that? I was so much ahead of him! I could have sworn…

But there's no time to think! I kick it up a couple notches and move my legs faster than I have in awhile. The adrenaline is rushing through me like a bullet rushing out of a fully loaded gun. My heart is pounding harder and harder every breath I take, and just when winning seems near impossible… I pass him!

I was too caught up in the energy flowing through me that I didn't even notice when I passed him! I look back as I'm running and see his tired old ass slow down and putting his hands on his head. He looks up at the ceiling and lets out a heavy breath. I've beat him! I've beat the long distance running instructor!

I don't even bother reaching the cornucopia. I'll save reaching it first for the real deal.

**Desiree Story POV**.

Um yeah, so I haven't been really training. I've pretty much have been going wherever Joaquin has been going. And that's pretty much all the plant and animal booths. But I'm okay with that, because all the other booths look like too much work! And I don't wanna mess up my hair!

I'm probably not gonna make it long in the Hunger Games. I mean, I pretty much suck at everything. The only booth that I'm actually decent at is the camouflaging booth. I mean, I'm _really_ good at it, but that's pretty much it. It's so sad that after being alive for 16 years, I've come to terms with dying in less than a week. It's like my body and mind are saying _"It's okay Desiree, it's time to let go." _It's so weird.

I don't have a lot of friends here, other than Joaquin and that Alexander kid, who I'd rather be with right now. He's a lot more fun and funnier than Joaquin, that's for sure. I've also been noticing the girls here. A lot of them have really bad sense in clothes, like _really really _bad, but there's the rare few that have some good taste. Like that Rosalina, Ann and Julietina. Those three girls have excellent hair too! Makes me slightly jealous.

There are a lot of hot guys though. Just to name a few, there's: Maximillium, Sapphire, Corrosive, and Manchester. Those guys are _hot! _And well, the rest are alright. I've seen Manchester eye me a few times, and I pretend not to look at him. You have to play hard to get if you want a boy's attention, and that's precisely what I'm doing. My hair looks good, my clothes are fresh, and my teeth are as white as ever. He's bound to come up to me any second now.

"Hey, your name is Desiree, right?"

Mission accomplished.

**Sapphire Amely POV.**

Second day of training complete! Ah, now I can go to my nice comfy bed and relax. Tomorrow will be the day we show the Gamemakers individually what we can do, and as of now, that's going to be the scariest thing ever. I may seem all tough and confident on the outside, but on the inside I am truly having the biggest freak out ever. I think everybody is honestly. Nobody can be calm and collected in a time like this. 23 of us are going to start dying off in less than a week. Thinking about that just makes me wanna vomit!

I decided I'm gonna show the Gamemakers my ability to throw a javelin. I'm surprisingly good at it, and hit a bull's eye almost every single time from every distance, so I think I'll get a fairly good score doing that.

After that, we're supposed to meet with our stylist and mentor for a prep meeting about the chariot rides. What we should do, what were going to wear, how to act with our district partner, etc. After that, we get our long awaited training scores that will be the difference in getting all the sponsors you've ever asked for or getting none, then after that we'll see our stylist for a brief moment and they'll dress us for the interview, and well, after that, we go to the Hunger Games.

It's a depressing schedule, I know.

I reach my room and crash into my bed. The feathered blankets feel so good against my back, and I feel like I'm floating on a cloud. How could I feel so comfortable in a time like this though? I'm going into the _Hunger Games, _and I'm going all goo-goo-gaga over this fancy Capitol bed? It's terribly exhausting acting like everything is okay, and then having to do all those booth things and taking all that information in can really bring someone down. I'm just glad that to every beginning of a day, there is always an end.

I hope during the Hunger Games I won't ever have to see that end.

**Cookie Hannah POV.**

Arnaldo is such a fucking jerk! He _obviously _had no feelings for me to start with if he blew me off that quickly! I mean who does he think he is? The king of the world? I can totally do so much _better_ than him! Just 'cause he has a cool last name gives him no right!

Great, now I have a horrible headache. I finished mybottle of extra strength Tylenol in about three days, and now I'm craving some more! I'm probably addicted. Eh, that's not good. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the Hunger Games without Tylenol; I mean seriously, that shit makes my day.

But yeah anyways, Arnaldo is a douche and I hate him! I am so going to kill him when I get into the games, and no one will be able to stop me! Not even Penelope, my only true friend here. God, just thinking about all this just gives me such a fucking headache!

I thought Arnaldo and I were going to be something. I thought we were going to go into The Hunger Games, beat some ass, and then run away together. But apparently he had some silent grudge against Penelope and Hazel, and he had to fuck it up! God, I just wanna punch a wall!

Good thing I remembered how to kill someone 32 different ways with 6 types of knives, because I intend on using every single technique on Arnaldo. He'll beg for his live once he even sees me.

I turn off the lights and lay on my therapeutic bed. I'm going to enjoy dreaming about killing Arnaldo tonight. Hopefully that dream becomes a reality soon.

I want some Tylenol damn it.

Manchester Emilio has just been called inside to meet with the Gamemakers. I'm sure that the only thing he will do in that room is show the Gamemakers how fast he can run, and that will be it. He will end up getting below a 3 in scoring and that will be that. His sponsors are going to sponsor him solely on his looks. I'm glad that Manchester is as stupid as he looks, because if he were any smarter, he would have actually been an actual threat to me throughout the Games. He's incredibly fast and has the strength to handle any weapon he desires, and I can't say that about many Tributes here.

There are only six of us left. Arnaldo and I, Rosalina and her albino District partner, and the two goth Tributes from 12. Since Manchester got called before me, once he is done I will be going up next. I already know what I'm planning on showing the Gamemakers. I will show them how swiftly and effectively I can kill someone with every single different type of knife and they will fall in love.

Once Arnaldo sees the 12 I'll get, he will know. He will know that his life will end shortly.

**Joaquin Scardino POV.**

Oh I'm very aware that Sarah doesn't like me, but I all I can do is try to be her friend. I wasn't in this world to make enemies; I was put in this world to make friends. And that is exactly why I'm not fighting with Sarah or with anybody else while I'm in the Games. I think I made the Gamemakers very aware of this too. During my private session, I mixed all the colors that they had that were supposed to be used for camouflage myself with and instead, I drew a giant peace sign on the floor. The Gamemakers didn't seem pleased at all, but as long as they know that I will not take part in this, my job was done.

I'm not going to be stupid about this though. I will _try _to survive during the Games, I just won't fight anybody. I wanna get out alive just as much as the next person, but if it's meant to be for me to die, then I'll die.

I'm in my room now, trying to sleep, but I realize that's not going to happen anytime soon. Tomorrow are the chariot rides, interviews, and training scores, and after that, The Hunger Games. In two days I'll be thrown in that arena, just two days. I've been alive for 15 years, and never did I ever think I would be put in a situation like this. I guess none of us were expecting it really, except the ones who volunteered, but for the rest of us, we have to do this, no choice at all.

Sarah and I are going to get no sponsors. Sarah is not going to act like she likes me; actually, she'll probably be visibly upset to be next to me. She's going to be the reason we don't get any sponsors, not me. If they ask her about me in the interviews, she'll probably openly admit that she hates me to the whole world. She hates me that much.

Sarah hates everything though. She was a super popular girl gone bad in my District. She was the one people always talked about, the one girls usually envied, but then, then she just stopped trying. She lost all her friends, which were a lot, and stopped trying to fit into society. All she does is drink and vomit, or so I've heard. The only reason Sarah was popular in the first place was because she was mean and had excellent hair and clothes. Sarah was considered brutal, like you did _not _wanna mess with Sarah, but no everyone always stomps all over her. She's known as the "Bulldog girl" in my district, because she has chubby cheeks and never smiles anymore.

It's sad, but what can you do.

I really do hope she finds her peace.


	5. Appearance means everything

_**AHHHH, we are one chapter away from the Games!**_

_**Who's excited? **_

_**There's 3 POV's left till we have everybody, so I want YOU to REVIEW, who is your favorite character so far?**_

_**Or just review anyways!  
You guys will make my day by doing that! **_

_**Oh, and another thing I wanna clear up, you might of noticed how I changed a couple things during the chariots rides and the scoring, but that's just how I picture it happening in my mind.**_

_**I don't want to write everything exactly how it happened in the book, so if you notice anything different, trust me, it's not a mistake!**_

_**Kisses and hugs, ForeverAdrian.**_

**Rosalina DiCaprio POV.**

As the neon pink hairdresser blow dries my beautiful long brown hair, I think of all the sponsors I could get on just my looks. My wavy long brown hair, my perfect tan skin, my piercing green cat eyes, and my slim body figure are all what sponsors these days are looking for, I just have to have a good personality to top it all off, which I do, I think. I'm sweet, I don't really like to fight, but I won't let them know that, I'm flirty, but not in a slutty kind of way, and I'm just a nice hearted person. I think they'll like that. I know I would.

I don't know what I'm going to do with my District partner. He's fat, and albino. His personality sucks, just as much as his clothing style. We've only muttered about two words the each other the whole entire time we've been together here. He looks at me like if he wants to talk to me, but never does, which makes me think he's a creeper. There was a rumor back in my District that he was a psychopathic rapist, but I don't think that's true. He may look creepy, but he seems nice. That's all that counts.

His mother died when he was like 10. She had a stroke right in front of him, and they were alone in the house together. There was nothing he could do to save her, I mean, what's a 10 year old to do when they see their own mother having a stroke right in front of them? The only thing he did do was run outside and call for help, and eventually a car driving by saw him and called the ambulance. She was very loved within my District, known for her charisma and her strong willed personality. Nobody could believe it when they heard about it. Bolt was never the same again.

"Stand up, please." The neon pink woman orders me as she finishes spraying some strange sort of spray in my hair.

I stand up and she looks me up and down, eyeing every single aspect of my body.

"Take of your clothes." She orders rudely.

I do as she says. I do not want to make this woman mad, for all I know, she might be the woman who makes me, or breaks me.

She eyes my naked body for a second, then turns around and walks towards a huge dresser the size of my own bed, and pulls out a huge thing of measuring tape.

She measures my body from head to toe, every angle, ever matter of my being, then puts the measuring tape back down. She puts her thumb on her chin and bites her bottom lip.

"I have the perfect dress for you." She says in her strange Capitol accent.

She runs towards another dresser, which is probably the size of my own house, and pulls out this plain looking, white colored dress that seems to have small blue flowers all over it. It has three brown buttons which seem to be for covering up my breast; two pockets a little below my hips, which are in the front of the dress, and a very small belt that goes right around my waist, which I think is part of the dress, not an accessory. The dress goes just a little below my knees, and it has a V-neck, which the boys of the Capitol will love, because my breasts are quite large. It looks like something a little farm girl would wear at a barn party in the 1930's. But it makes sense; I _am _from District 10, the livestock District.

"Put it on now! I wanna see what you look like with it on!" She exclaims, clapping her hands together in excitement.

I put it on and look at myself in the mirror. It fits me perfectly, but there's really nothing special about it. It's so _plain. _But if this neon pink woman likes it, I guess I'm gonna have to trust her judgment.

"Okay! Perfect! Now put on these black school girl shoes, oh! And with these high white socks, and you'll be set!"

She hands me these very dull looking black shoes that have nothing on the top of it but a small lace that connects one side of the shoe to the other, and these very high white socks that go up a little above my ankle.

"You look like a beautiful farm girl!" She says, jumping up and down.

"Uh, thanks." I mumble back to her. I look at myself in the mirror for about five minutes when I realize I look utterly hideous and boring. This is going to ruin me!

"Is there anything… else I can wear?" I ask her the nicest way possible.

She immediately stops what she's doing and looks at me, giving me a long hard stare.

"Are you meaning to tell me, you don't like it?" She asks, very slowly and very deeply.

"Oh, no! I love it! I was just wondering, is all!" I blurt out quickly. She looks at me for a second more, and then walks off.

_Great_, I think to myself. _I pissed of the stylist._

**Corrosive Tanner POV.**

I'm way faster than that Manchester kid. _Way faster._ I could have beaten him in that long distance race in a second; I just don't like to show off. I hate how he thinks he's the shit, but he's nothing but looks. Not to be gay, but he's a waste of a pretty face. I consider him like a silent enemy. We have the same strengths, we look pretty much the same, and we have the same clothing style and interest. I know the sponsors will be having a hard time choosing between the two of us, so my chariot ride and interview have to be priceless. It's between me and him now, and I won't give up without a fight.

I'm dressed in the usual fish net wrap that every single District 4 tribute has been put in for years, and if you have a good body, the only thing it covers is your torso, which is my case. It's incredibly humiliating, and I'm so fucking cold, but I guess if this is what I have to do to win over some sponsors, I'll do it.

My district partner, Julietina, is dressed like a mermaid, which is also very common, but she still looks beautiful. She's dressed in very shiny, lime green sparkling skinny jeans, that are so tight on her that it makes it look like a giant fin, and her shoes are these huge, 4 inch heel ruby red platforms shoes, that I guess is supposed to resemble the bottom part of the fin. That's it! Literally too. She has no top, she's going completely topless!

Hey, I'm not complaining! And it doesn't look like she is either. She's standing in the corner of the dressing room looking at herself in the mirror as we speak, making kissy faces and peace signs.

Oh the joys of being a District 4 tribute.

**Hazel Nguyen POV.**

The man's name is Alchemist, and he tells me I have a boring look. He said that I won't ever be pretty, no matter what he does to me, and I just sit here and say nothing.

I've been instructed not to argue or talk back to my stylist, not that I was going to anyways, and that's what I intend on doing. I always do what I'm told. I'm told often that I'm a very disciplined girl, and that's the compliment I hear the most, if it's even a compliment.

Alchemist is talking to another yellow skinned stylist about hair extensions, and if he should give me some to "spice" up my look. He said that I had to wear something very colorful and classy, since I came from District 8, but then he threw his hands up in the air and said it was impossible to put me in such an outfit.

I'm currently sitting in this incredibly uncomfortable chair, waiting for him to finish up placing the extensions in my hair. My hair looks like it has long waves flowing through it, and it's down to my ribcage, when normally my hair would be as thin as straw and would only go down to my collar bone. I think I look beautiful, but he disagrees.

Oh well, if that's what he thinks, I respect that. Although it is a little mean.

"Eveleigh, bring in dress number 52!" Alchemist orders to some pig faced woman that's standing by the enormous drawer.

She pulls out this extremely large, extravagant dress that only girls that have graced the cover of Vogue should wear.

It's all black, going down to my knees, and it looks very tight, except for under the waist, where it puffs out like the top of a cupcake, and there's a crimson red cloth that wraps around the waist area and dangles off to the side. It's a long sleeve, and right where my elbows are supposed to be it also sticks up like the top of a cupcake. It has a V, but I don't know how that's going to work out since I have no boobs, and he's also holding a huge golden necklace that has many oval shaped rings going around it, all vertically, but the thickness of the metal changes on each oval ring.

"Put this on." He orders as he slaps down the complicated dress on my lap.

"Uh, now?" I say, uncomfortable with the idea of changing in front of him.

"Yes, now, while we have time. I'm going to change your hair again, and it's going to take awhile. I'm going to make you into a high fashion goddess." He smiles, but then jolts up like if he had just been struck by lightning and smiles again.

"How could I forget? Your shoes!" He runs back to the drawer and pulls out these gargantuan pair of red platform heels that are no smaller than 7 inches. Swear to God. He also pulls out a pair of black pantyhose and hands them to me.

"Perrrrrfect!" He exclaims as he hands me the shoes. "You're all set!"

God help me.

**Garth Spahr POV.**

Hazel looks incredible! I don't know how they did it, but they performed a miracle on that girl. She looks like she belongs right in the Capitol! I don't know if they tried dressing her up as a clown or what, but she still looks amazing. I really wish I could look as good as her.

Not.

She looks like shit. They made her look like a fool, and yes she really does look like a clown, a pretty desperate one. It was her hair that did it for me too. She has two balls on each side of her head, made of her own hair, and the rest is completely stuck to her head, like they gelled it to the extreme. I can tell she doesn't like it either. She keeps looking in the mirror over and over again, and whenever her stylist walks by, she'll shriek and walk away.

Weakling.

I think I look pretty good. I'm just in a plain and simple tux. Except the colors are black and red, and they put mass make up on me to make me look paler than I am. I think they're trying to make me into a vampire or something, I don't know. But I still look good. When do I not?

"District 6 chariots just left!" someone calls from behind me.

"Okay children, start getting on." Hazel's stylist orders as our chariot is being brought to us. District 7 is right behind the curtain, so any second now they're going to be out and running.

Our mentor told us to act that we at least liked each other, since he knows Hazel's and I's personalities clash to the extreme, but if by doing so will get me some sponsors, I'll do it. I'll do anything to get all the sponsors I can, but not that I need them or anything. I already know I'm going to win this. I mean, I'm hot, small, fast, strong, and smart. Those are all the things you need to survive in the Hunger Games, and I've got them all, so hello future fame and fortune!

District 7 just left, so now were up. We quickly climb on the chariot and sit behind the velvet curtain anxiously. Hazel looks like she's about to have a major freak out moment, but I'm just going to play it cool. Nothing can ruin this moment for me. Here, right now, I will shine.

The curtains open and we're off.

**Autumn Renee POV.**

We're the last ones out, obviously.

I've never seen so many flashing lights and screaming people around me ever in my life! I can barely see what's going on, and if Halloween is saying something to me right now, I wouldn't hear him. The screams are deafening.

Halloween is holding my hand tightly for the crowd. So tightly it hurts, actually. But I don't care, as long as I'm aside my future husband, everything is alright. I knew that when he got reaped I couldn't miss this opportunity. I knew that it might as well have been the last time I ever saw him again, so I did what every brave woman should do, sacrifice yourself for the man you love! And I know for a fact he loves me too. I mean, he would always look at me in the halls and during the training sessions, so isn't that signal enough? I certainly think so.

"We're almost there." He whispers into my ear as we reach this dark and enclosed building. I think I can see some of the other Tributes standing around and being rushed inside the building, which is a clear indication.

"Get out of the chariot _now!_ They're about to announce the training scores and in about 5 minutes we'll be starting the interviews!" A man with a small device in his ear screams as our horses finally stop.

We quickly jump out of the chariot and run inside the building. We are given some water for a split second and then we are pushed out of the building. A man quickly directs us to what looks like a giant town square with a huge flat screen TV floating right in the center of it. It has all our names, and a number next to it. I stare at it with awe, when suddenly, I hear the legendary announcer Caesar Flickerman start reading out what's on the screen.

_Juanita Alba, 10_

_Maximillium Rochester, 9_

_Glenn Elizabeth, 3_

_Derek France, 8_

_Sarah Morford, 3_

_Joaquin Scardino, 1_

_Julietina Fox, 9_

_Corrosive Tanner, 8_

_Alexander Pastrana, 5_

_Desiree Story, 7_

_Izzy Bauer, 2_

_George Seibert, 3_

_Ann Mcdermott, 4_

_Sapphire Amely, 10_

_Hazel Nguyen, 2_

_Garth Spahr, 8_

_Penelope Starr, 7_

_Manchester Emilio, 9_

_Arnaldo Armani, 3_

_Cookie Hannah, 10_

_Rosalina DiCaprio, 3_

_Bolt Westerman, 5_

_Autumn Renee, 2_

_Halloween Meyer, 12_

Halloween got a _12?_ How is that possible? To get a 12, you have to be absolutely incredible! I actually don't remember anybody else getting a 12 in the Hunger Games so far! What could he have shown the judges that made him get… a 12?

"Oh my God, Halloween!" I say to him, my mouth wide open in shock. "You got a 12?"

"I know." He says back, completely numb to the fact that he got such a high number. It looks like he doesn't even care.

"What did you show them?" I ask him curiously.

"None of your concern." He replies back.

"Congratulations Mr. Meyer, but you guys have to go to the square now. The interviews will be starting any second now." A man says from behind us.

"Let's go." He says to me, still no emotion in his voice.

"O-okay." I say quietly.

Okay, so there actually _might _be something wrong with this kid.


	6. Our last act of kindness

_**Next chapter, It's the Gameeeeee's!**_

_**Just a quick disclaimer, I do not own the Hunger Games.**_

_**There, happy?**_

_**Tell me which 5 POV's you want me to use for the first chapter of the Games!**_

_**Keep in mind, the people you first chose, will drastically alter the Games in their own way, so chose wisely ;)**_

_**Remember to review review review!**_

_**Love, ForeverAdrian**_

**Bolt Westerman POV.**

I know I have to win this for my mother. She was my everything, and I lost her in a tragic accident, so I feel that if I lose this competition, I will lose all the respect my mom has for me from well, wherever she is. She always wanted me to be the best I could always, so I intend to be the best damn Tribute the Hunger Games has ever seen.

I'm listening to the girl from District 4 do her interview now. She was topless during the chariot rides, which was a total score, but now she's dressed in this light green loose fitted dress that on one side goes down to her knee, but then it makes an arch formation to the other side that covers her till her ankle. The sleeves go down a little past her elbow, and she's wearing a long, skinny silver necklace that goes down to her ribcage.

It doesn't fit her very well.

Caesar keeps asking her about her outrageous chariot dress, almost a little creeperish, but she just answers it like if people have been asking her questions like that her whole life. He also asks her about her impressive 9 in training.

She's definitely going to be a hard one to beat, since she's probably racking sponsors by the second now and her 9 in training means that she must be really good at something, so most of us are pretty well screwed.

She's finally almost about done with her interview when I feel someone poke my back. I turn around and see Rosalina, all dressed and looking beautiful, smiling at me.

Wow, this is weird. I didn't even think she knew I existed.

"Hey, how are you?" She asks me. She smiles, showing all her teeth, and now is when I realize how truly beautiful someone's smile can be. Like my moms.

"I'm good I guess. Not really that excited that the Games start tomorrow. How about you?"

"I'm okay." She says back, looking around her. "Not really too excited about the Games either."

"I bet nobody is." I say, laughing a little bit. "Or maybe just Juanita."

We both start laughing. It's nice to finally talk to someone after a week of pure self solitude. And I'm glad that that "someone" is Rosalina. I've always thought she would be nice and fun to talk to, but I didn't think I would ever get the chance too.

"What approach are you going to do for your interview?" She asks me.

"I'm going to be myself, nothing more." I say back to her, smiling.

She smiles back.

"What about you?" I ask.

"Probably flirty, or a sweet innocent girl approach. Nothing too risky." She says back casually.

I manage to mumble an _oh, _before I hear the crowd screaming Alexander Pastranas name.

"We should probably start getting ready." Rosalina implies as Alexander takes his seat.

"Yeah, we should." I say back, kind of disappointed that our conversation has to end so soon.

"It was nice talking to you." She says with a smile before walking off.

"Oh, you too!" I say, shocked by her sudden act of kindness.

And she's gone.

**Julietina Fox POV.**

I know I did great. Everybody loved my boobs and my attitude, so I know I got more sponsors than I need.

Tomorrow is the big day. Tomorrow is the day we all get shipped into that terrifying arena to fight to the death with 23 other teenagers. Sounds exciting, doesn't it?

Well, for me it does. I might be a little scared, but I'm more excited. I know that on the first day so much adrenaline is going to be rushing through me I'm going to be practically unstoppable. I don't want to kill people though, just hurt them. I want some action, and if I don't get it, I'll cause it.

I'm so tired right now though that I don't even know what I'm saying. Looking beautiful and acting all nice and flirty can be so _exhausting. _So now the only thing I'm looking forward to is going to bed.

All the interviews are over now, and all the Tributes are in the building we are being held in.

I'm walking towards my room now actually, when suddenly; I hear the sound of someone weeping quietly. Like a little girl weep when they don't get the toy they wanted.

The halls are dim now, so I can't really see who's there, but I _can _see a small shadowed figure a few feet ahead of me.

"Hey, who are you?" I ask at the crying figure.

It takes her a while to answer before she says "Izzy."

"Well, Izzy, shouldn't you be in bed? Tomorrows going to be a big day."

"No, I'm too scared to go to bed, 'cause I know that if I do, I'll have nightmares." She says back, crying harder now than she was before.

I walk up to her and kneel down. She's the only 12 year old we have this year, and based just on her looks, I know she won't make it past the first day. She's too skinny, and if she's crying now, there's no way in hell she's going to be able to emotionally, and physically, make it past the first day.

"Listen, kid. This may as well be your last night alive here, so if I were you, I'd go to your room and get a good sleep. Get ready for tomorrow, you know? It might be your last."

I stand up and walk past her, right towards to my room. I can hear her suddenly stop crying, but then I hear her stand up and start walking towards me.

"What's your name?" She asks me, wiping tears away from her eyes.

"Julietina Fox. District 4." I tell her proudly.

"I'll never forget you, Julietina Fox. District 4." She then, out of nowhere, suddenly walks up to me and wraps her hands around my waist. I'm too taken back to do anything, but after about 5 seconds, she lets go, and runs off in a random direction.

_I'll never forget you either, Izzy._

**Izzy Bauer POV.**

Julietina Fox. District 4, probably gave me the best words of advice I've heard this whole time. I need to treat every day like it's my last, and I plan on doing so tonight.

I've slipped a note under every Tributes door inviting them to a slumber party in my room. I thought I might as well, since tonight is our last night together before we start dying off, so I thought it'd be a fun thing to do.

But I don't think anybody is going to attend. I put the notes under everyone's door about a half an hour ago, and so far nobody has knocked on my door. And people are probably not too interested in going to a sleep over where your potential killer could attend.

I sigh out loud. _Oh well, _I think to myself, _at least I tried._

Right before I head to bed, I hear a sudden knock on the door.

I quickly run towards the door, trying my best to contain my excitement. I slowly open it, and low and behold, Glenn Elizabeth is at the door.

"Come in!" I say urgently.

She mumbles and okay before walking in and soon she makes herself comfortable on the wooden floor. I quickly do the same.

"Others aren't far behind." She says nervously as we sit there in silence.

"Who's coming?" I ask her eagerly.

"From what I've heard, just Alexander Pastrana and George Seibert, but I think others might be coming too. I'm not so sure." She says nervously, again. I can tell she seems anxious, but I don't know what to do. This whole plan seemed so perfect when I thought of it, but now that people are actually coming, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

"Hello." I hear someone say as they walk through the door. "It's me, Autumn."

I turn around and face her direction. She's inspecting the room, I'm guessing to see if it's safe, then plops herself down next to me.

"Nice to meet you." She says, sticking her hand out for me to shake it. I do so, and notice that she has one nail painted black, and the other slime green, in both hands. That's so weird, but cool!

"Soooo…" Autumn says as we all sit there in silence, again.

"Are you guys nervous about tomorrow?" I ask, hoping they'll say yes, because I don't want to be the only one stuck in constant fear.

"Uhh, yeah!" Glenn exclaims like if what I asked was the most ridiculous thing she's ever heard.

"I am sorta, but I'm just happy at the fact that I'm going to be alongside Halloween." Autumn says as her eyes flutter to the ceiling, like if she was looking at a beautiful blue sky.

"Do you like him?" I ask her, knowing the obvious answer.

"Um, yes!" She says back, laughing.

All three of us start laughing.

I suddenly hear a knock on the door and see three figures standing by the door.

I recognize one of them as being George Seibert, and the other guy I'm guessing is Alexander Pastrana. But the girl, I have no idea.

"Come in!" I say, waving them towards us.

They walk nervously towards us and sit themselves right next to Autumn and Glenn, making a perfect circle.

"I'm Alexander." Alexander says to us, smiling and waving. "This is George, and this is Ann." They awkwardly smile and wave. George looks like he's about to die of either embarrassment or either trying to hold back a really loud laugh, and Ann looks like she has somewhere better to be. But either way, I'm glad they're here.

"You have room for one more?" I hear a voice say from behind me.

I turn around and see Joaquin Scardino standing by the door.

"We sure do! Come on in!" Autumn replies happily as she turns around.

He sits down in our little circle, and the awkward silence takes its place again.

"What are you guys most worried about?" Autumn says, breaking the silence.

"That death is going to hurt." Alexander quickly says, then starts laughing because everyone is looking at him.

"I'm scared of the mutations and the natural disasters that might happen while we are in there." Glenn says with an honest look on her face.

"I'm scared that I won't win." George blurts out. I hear a few other people say what they're scared of what might happen during the Game, but I'm scared of something else that in my mind is the scariest thing in the world. This fear is what is going to weigh me down during the Games. This fear is what might make me not win.

"I'm scared of losing you guys." I say quietly.

Everyone is suddenly quiet, and all eyes or me.

I feel myself crying before I feel another thing. The touch of warm hands wrapping around my neck. Before I know it, all of us are locked arm in arm, and some of us are weeping quietly, while others are just cherishing the last moment we will all be together.

I wouldn't trade this moment for the world.


	7. Let the Games begin

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.**_

_**The Games have started, finallllly.**_

_**This is where it gets good.**_

_**Well Review, Review, Review, even though I only have one reviewer so far.**_

_**PenelopeWendyBing; Love ya!**_

_**Hugs and Kisses, ForeverAdrian.**_

**Izzy Bauer POV.**

I am in the… what you can call the basement of the arena, with my stylist Chadwick Sparks. He's being very quiet and calm with me, which I appreciate, because I am extremely nervous. I am the youngest and probably weakest girl this year, so I don't expect myself to make it that far in the Games, but I can at least try. There's no use in giving up yet, I mean, I'm sure a lot of the Tributes are probably scared out of their minds right now.

I want to cry, but I can't. I got all my crying done last night when I was with those wonderful people, and after they left, I sobbed my heart out for a little while, so I don't even think I have any tears left in my system to cry out anyways.

I miss my mom the most right now. I wish she could be here with me instead of Chadwick. She always knows how to make everything better, even in the worst of times. She always knows the right things to do and the right things to say to make me feel like a new person again. I need her so badly right now.

"It's time to get dressed now, Izzy." Chadwick says quietly as he stands up to look for the clothes that I will be wearing for, hopefully, my whole time here.

He walks towards a very small dresser, with one single drawer on it. He opens it, then pulls out this brown, long sleeve shirt and a thick dark orange vest, accompanied by these tight looking camouflage colored pants. The two colors on the pants are brown and dark yellow, and lastly, he pulls out these immense black hiking boots that look to be the size of my head.

"Come on Izzy, you have to be dresses in less than five minutes." He says, waving at me to come.

I walk towards the clothes and, embarrassed, turn the other way to put them on.

I was never comfortable changing in front of people, even my own mother, so I don't think this should be one last exception. I am only 12 years old after all.

After I get dressed, I stand there for a moment and look at myself in the mirror. I look like I'm about to go for a nice hike up a mountain, not fight for my life with 23 other kids. _This is so wrong._

"It's time to go, Izzy." My stylist informs me as he gestures me to stand on my metal plate.

I nod and walk on to the metal plate. I look around the dark room for one last time, and let out a small sigh. _This is it, _I think to myself. _This is it._

"Good luck, Izzy." Chadwick says softly to me as the glass starts lowering around me.

"Thank you so much for your help, Chadwick." I whisper to him, barely audible between us two. He gives me a weak smile and steps back.

I press my hand against the glass as I feel my metal plate slowly start rising. My body starts trembling as I see the first peak of sunlight shine through above me as I get closer and closer to the arena.

And before I know it, my metal plate stops, the glass surrounding me lowers itself, and I'm there.

**Sapphire Amely POV.**

It's so beautiful here; it's like nothing I've ever seen before.

The skies are a beautiful cotton candy pink with very few tiny white clouds floating around slowly above us. I can't see a sun, but I feel a slight feeling of warmth wrap itself around my body, which is very comforting to me, because by the way were dressed, I can tell there are going to be some very cold days.

The forest where in seems to be stuck in autumn, because all the trees are all dead looking and the ground is covered with their leaves, which most of them are brown and golden colors. I can't see any birds flying around them either. They're just so lifeless, but something about them just makes them so beautiful, peaceful even.

In the distance I can see hundreds of mountains all standing next to each other in an "all too perfect" notion, with a small amount of snow on top on each and everyone. There's something weird about those mountains though, maybe it's the fact that they have round tops instead of jagged pointy ones? Huh, who knows. I don't really see that many mountains back in District 2.

The ground, from what I can see, is very muddy. So I should also be expecting some very rainy days too. Hopefully no frozen rain though. We get that a lot back in District 2 right around autumn.

What I see isn't too bad, so I'm not going to stress about the environment, but what I am worried about are the other Tributes, like Maximillium, Juanita, and Julietina, but the sad part is that I'm going to be working with them in less than a minute, killing with them, then hopefully, if I make it that long, fighting against them.

Ann McDermott is standing on the metal plate next to me, looking extremely focused, so focused that I actually don't think she's even noticed me staring at her. I've always thought she was extremely beautiful. The first time I saw her in the Reaping recaps I knew she was going to be a hard one to beat. But what's so cool about her is that she's not like a typical Hunger Games Tribute. She isn't too cocky about her looks or her abilities, she doesn't look scared and weak all the time, she isn't angry at everyone for being here, she's just… normal. She's probably the most normal person here right now, and I hope she stays that way. The Hunger Games does some pretty crazy things to some good people.

The Cornucopia is ahead of me, just out of my reach it feels like. If there weren't 23 other people out here trying to reach it before I do, I'd say that the Cornucopias distance isn't as bad as I thought. When you see it from the TV, it seems forever away, but when you're actually experiencing it in the flesh, you realize that everything you need for your survival is so close to you, it's torturous.

The 60 seconds should be up any second now. I can just feel the tension in the air, the nervousness, the fear, the _excitement. _

_Breathe, _I think to myself. _Everything is going to be all right._

The gong goes off.

**Sarah Morford POV.**

Once I hear that gong go off I feel all the thoughts and worries that I had in my head suddenly explode into tiny particles of fear.

I suddenly see 23 people running all different directions in a chaotic manner, except me. I'm stuck in my metal plate, with the fear I didn't even know I had morphing itself into impossible glue that's sticking around my feet.

I know that if I stay here I'll die, and that thought becomes a reality when I feel a very sharp object fly through my thigh and make a small cut.

That's all I need to get my ass moving.

I immediately run forward and see my attacker, Juanita, curse at herself for not killing me. She's too far away from me to be too much of a threat, if that was her only knife that is. She could kill me any second if she really wanted to.

I stumble on a backpack that I must have not seen and pick it up immediately, not caring what it contains or how big it is. I also pick up, miraculously, a metal bat with small jagged spikes covering it that no one has seemed to pay any attention to. _This could come in handy_, I think to myself.

I run forward and pick up two water bottles that some tributes must have already fought over, because they have several bloody fingerprints covering them, and put them inside my vest.

I want to stop and check if I have everything I need for survival, but I simply can't. There are still too many Tributes around to make the situation dangerous, so I just start running to the outskirts of the wood when I hear a faint scream behind me.

I slowly turn around and see Autumn, the girl from District 12, horribly sprawled out on the ground screaming and begging for the boy that's towering on top of her to spare her life. I can't really see it at first, but I soon notice a gruesome puddle of blood forming right around her feet, and that's when I realize she has no feet.

They've been chopped off.

The boy who's holding the ax I don't recognize, but it's not hard to recognize an evil man when he's standing over a poor girl, laughing hysterically because he just cut her two feet off.

I can feel the anger rising inside me. If there's one thing I hate, it's when sick minded fucks like this dude gang up and torture people who are clearly defenseless.

I need to help her.

I throw all my supplies down by a nearby bush except my bat, and run towards the boy with the ax. He doesn't see me, which is odd because I'm running directly towards him, but when he finally does look my way it's too late. The spikes on my bat are already inches deep inside his skull, and as his lifeless body slowly slumps down to the ground, my face is greeted with the sickening feeling of warm blood sprayed onto my face.

I do realize that I have just risked my life for a girl I don't know at all, but when my anger takes over me, I can't do anything to stop myself from doing the radical. That's probably what's going to end up killing me in the end.

The girl's screams are starting to get beyond hysterical, and I'm starting to wonder if I've made a mistake. She's going to attract too much attention. Should I just run away from her, and make killing this boy pointless? No, I can't leave her like this. I have to at least try to help her.

"I'm going to help you." I say to her quietly. Her eyes widen even more but her screams subside, but now she's breaking into a horrible sob.

I put my index finger over my lip and softly shush her, trying to be as calm as possible.

"I'm going to help you." I repeat to her, even quieter.

"Kill me." She says in a horrible moaning voice. "Kill me now!"

I'm too shocked and confused by what she just said, so I just shush her again and tell her everything is going to be alright. I know that I'm wasting valuable time, but we are far enough away from the cornucopia that the careers won't be too much of threats to us right now.

"Kill me." She says sternly all of a sudden. "You said you wanted to help me. Now kill me!"

I stare at her for a moment, wondering if this is what she really wants, or if she's just speaking out of pain, but I guess those are two very good reasons for me to consider her request. But the thing is, can I actually do this? Should I actually do this? Killing that boy was easy, he was a psychopath, but this girl, I saved her life. Is it right to save someone's life, just to end up killing them in the long run?

"Please." She whispers to me as if she knew exactly what I had been thinking.

I know that this is what I have to do, but I will never forgive myself for it. _This is what I get for helping this girl. _I think to myself.

I slowly stand up and inspect my surroundings. There are still a few Tributes fighting for what little there's left in the cornucopia, but other than that, nothing. No ones in sight.

I slowly raise my bat, knowing that if I want to kill her right away I have to hit her in the head, _hard._

"Turn your head sideways." I say to her. She closes her eyes and proceeds to turn her head sideways. She bites her bottom lip and makes her hands into fists, bracing for the pain.

I'm going to make this quick, for her.

With one great force of energy, I slam my bat down into the side of her skull and immediately kill her.

To my surprise, there really isn't a bloody mess, which is good; I'd probably pass out if her brains suddenly busted out.

After I yank my bat out of her skull I run towards my supplies and pick them up. I need to find a nice tree with a decent amount of leaves to rest in for tonight. God knows today's been a hell of a day, and tomorrow will probably be worse.

I throw my bag over my shoulder and walk into the dead woods.

**Garth Spar POV.**

I didn't get all the supplies I wanted, but oh well; I have enough to keep me alive for awhile.

Luck is on my side in this arena, because I'm small and skinny, which gives me the upper hand when climbing these skinny, weak trees that give virtually no camouflage. Anybody else that would try would probably break the branches almost immediately, so I guess I'm pretty much blessed.

I grabbed a fair amount of ropes and a fair amount of energy drinks from the Cornucopia. I have three bottles of water and two loaves of bread accompanying that. I have no weapons, which won't help me at all in the future when I have to fight someone, or maybe kill, but I guess my hands could be considered a weapon. I _was _the all star wrestler in my district.

It's getting extremely cold as the day goes on, but the skies have stayed exactly the same. There is no hint of any sort of sunset coming anytime soon, so I guess time doesn't really fly in this arena, either way, I want it to hurry up. I'm ready to go to bead already.

Last I saw, not that many people died in the Cornucopia, which isn't surprising. There aren't a lot of fighters this year, so I better prepare myself for a very slow Games.

I've seen a couple Tributes here and there walk by but I am by no any means prepared to fight. When I gather some weapons later on I'll be more than willing to fight, but not now.

I sit on the tree for hours, thinking of a strategy that I should go by; when I hear the anthem suddenly blare out of nowhere.

How can this be? It's not even close to being nighttime! It looks the exact same as it did when we first got here! Did they make a mistake? Probably so, damn Gamemakers don't ever know what they're doing.

I look up at the sky and see the faces of the boy from District 3, the girl from 6, the boy from 11, and the girl from 12. That's it. Only four Tributes dead. That's such a disappointment. Four Tributes dead leaves us with 20, and normally there would be at least 15 Tributes left after the first day.

The Capitol is going to get angry, which means that the Gamemakers are probably finishing up their new cruel little mutations now.

Oh joy, this is going to be so much fun.

**Juanita Alba POV**

We have up to 85% of the items that were in the Cornucopia. We have weapons like the bow and arrow, chainsaw, an ax, various knives, and a sword. We have more than 10 loaves of bread, more than 15 bottles of water, and three tents. We have almost everything. All we need is a first aid kit, some blankets, and something to help us hunt at night, and we'd be set.

It's still very sunny out, even though there's no sun, but it should be coming closer to nightfall. The stupid idiots from the Capitol made a mistake and did the anthem a little too early, but that didn't bother me. I just got to see the faces of the worthless runts that died a little bit earlier than usual.

Maximillium is currently trying to set up camp. As we've discovered, putting tents together aren't the easiest things to do, or dividing up the food and water equally. Maximillum wants more food, claiming he's the strongest, while Corrosive tells us he needs more water because he's the fastest runner here, and that he'll need the water when time comes to it. Julietina wants one whole tent to herself because she needs the "privacy". Sapphire and I are the only ones not arguing about this stupid bullshit. Sapphire because he's an idiotic weakling that won't even talk, and I, well because I know I'll be getting it all soon enough anyways. I'm not going to waster precious energy on something that I'll soon obtain in a matter of days. It won't be too long before some of us start dying off, and when they do, I'll make sure all their supplies go to me.

"Juanita, are you going to fucking help me or just stand there and look pretty?" Maximillium screams at me as one of the poles of the tent flies out of its spot and smacks him in the knee.

"Coming monsieur!" I say in my innocent little voice. It's funny how I've even changed the sound of my voice while being here. Now, I talk much higher than I used to, and I don't know why. I guess that's just me naturally fitting in to character. I'm naturally good at everything!

I help him set up the last tent that needs to be put up before everything is set. The tree tents are positioned to make a triangle, with the one at the top facing north, the one in the bottom left facing south, and the one in the bottom right facing the inside. It looks like a pretty safe technique, so were going with it for now.

The sun still hasn't set at all, but we are all so extremely tired. It feels like the suns been up forever, and with no signs of going down either. There's something weird about that, but I can't really put my finger on it. With no way of telling time, I have no idea how long we've been here.

"I think I'm going to sleep." Sapphire is the first one to say as were all just standing around there, doing nothing.

"Alright." Say's Maximillium. "You share a tent with Corrosive. Juanita, you are going to share a tent with Julietina, and I'll sleep by myself in this tent." He points to the one in the north. "If it makes you feel any better, it's the smallest one." With no sign of protest, we all start crawling into our tents. We left all the supplies outside, right in the middle of all the tents, just to be fair, underneath a clump of leaves. If a Tribute just happens to walk by, they won't notice it, but if you look hard enough, it's actually very noticeable.

"Don't bother me while I'm sleeping, Frenchie." Julietina snarls are we try to get comfortable. "That's all I expect from you."

_Hah, she's mistaken._

I pull out a knife that I had hidden in my vest and while she's not looking, swiftly grab her by the hair and press my knife against her throat.

"Mademoiselle, you do not speak to Juanita like 'dat anymore, understood? That is all I expect from _you._" I fiercely whisper into her ear so no one outside will hear. "Sleep with an eye open."

I remove my knife from her neck and release her hair. She looks at me for a second, not with fear, or anger, but with disbelief.

I smile as I turn the other way.

This is going to be too easy.


	8. The start of Insanity

**Wohooo, another chapter!**

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**ForeverAdrian**

**Garth Spar POV.**

Sleeping on a tree is one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever experienced in my life. The branches have made permanent dents on my skin from sleeping on them for so long, and I don't think those dents are going to go away any time soon either. Oh well, at least it kept me safe for the night.

I stretch my arms up in the air and scratch my eyes, wiping away all the sleepies that are stuck between my eye lids. The sun is up now, which is good because that means I slept the whole night without getting attacked or falling off the tree, which is what I was worried about the most, but what's weird is that the sky looks exactly the same as it did yesterday. The clouds are in the exact same position, the color of the sky is the exact same, and the angle in which the sun is hiding is the exact same angle as yesterday. _Weird, _I think to myself, but then immediately brush off the thought when I notice that all my items are missing. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

"What the fuck?" I whisper as I desperately look around for my items. I jump off the small tree and start digging underneath the leaves, hoping that they fell and somehow slipped underneath the vast amount of leaves on the ground, but I can't feel them or see them anywhere.

What could have happened? Did an animal steal it? No, an animal couldn't have stolen every single one of my items, they would of have to have been big in order to do that, so I would have felt them coming up the tree and most certainly grabbing my items, so did someone steal them while I was sleeping?

That's highly unlikely too. I would have felt them or heard them too, unless they were very small, like that Izzy girl, but she died yesterday in the poor excuse of a blood bath, and she was the smallest one here, so what the fuck happened?

This is too much thinking for the early morning. I can already feel a headache coming on, which isn't good. I don't want to be getting sick now out of all times.

I rest against the tree slowly, making sure that none of the sore spots that I have on my back from the branches touch the bark.

_This would be a really good time for a sponsor present, right now. _I think to myself. I look up and stick my hands up in the air, trying to give them a signal that I desperately need some fucking food or water right about now, but nothing comes down.

_Where are your sponsors when you need 'em, huh?_

Whatever, they're just pieces of shit. I can do this myself. I mean, how hard can it be to find food and water around here, anyways?

I take one step forward, one single step forward, when I suddenly feel something tighten itself around my left ankle, and then I suddenly fall to the ground and get pulled to the tree in front of mine.

The wet mud scrapes against my back as I'm being dragged faster and faster, when I'm suddenly suspended upside down, left dangling in the air.

"What the fuck!" I scream in anger as I feel the blood slowly fill my head. "Who did this?"

I suddenly see a tall, white figure come out from behind a tree a couple yards away. He looks scared at first, but then gradually regains confidence as he gets closer and closer to me. It doesn't take too long before I realize this is no other than Halloween Meyer, the boy I made fun of during my interview.

"_So tell us about some of your fierce competitors!" Caesar Flickerman exclaims, giving me an all too enthusiastic look._

"_They're all a bunch of weaklings, honestly. Almost none of them are willing to fight, except a rare few, including me." I say, smiling at the crowd. "I mean, honestly, look at some of these kids. Look at that girl from District 6; she probably couldn't even pick up the bowl of cereal her mom makes her every morning." The crowd laughs, and just as Caesar is about to say something else, I quickly interrupt him._

"_And, and, and my District partner, Hazel. She looked like a firggin' clown today, with her meatball hair and her weird ass make up, I mean come on?" I say laughing again. Caesar laughs along, and so does the Capitol. God, I am enjoying this so much._

"_Anymore Tributes you'd like to point out?" Caesar asks, wiping away an invisible tear from his eye as he continues laughing._

"_Yeah. That Halloween kid, that got a 12 in training? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the only reason he got a 12 was because he showed the Gamemakers that he's a vampire, and that if they didn't give him a 12, he would have to suck their blood! I mean, look at him! All white and shit? And with that creepy face? Come on now." The Capitol goes hysterical, and once Caesar sees the Capitols reactions, he goes hysterical as well, just to be safe I guess._

_I wave to the crowd, laughing and smiling, thinking of all the hundreds of sponsors I just made._

_What a successful day._

"Remember me?" He says with a wide smirk as he pulls out something from behind his back. I've seen them before, but I don't know what their called. I guess the closest thing I can compare them to are those ninja stars… very, very big ninja stars, possibly the size of my head, or bigger.

He pulls out two of them, holding one on each hand. I know this is the end, but I can't let him intimidate me, not even if the blades on the ninja stars are almost as long as my arms.

"How could I forget." I say, trying to smile. "You're vampire boy."

He chuckles, then slowly bends down and puts his mouth right next to my ear.

"You have no idea, how much I _hate _it when you call me that." I can sense the evil in his voice. The feeling of his breath touching my ear makes my skin crawl, but I cannot let him sense my fear. If he's going to kill me, I want him to think that I was not scared or intimidated by him at all. Even though right now, at this very second, I want to ball my eyes out.

I never thought I would die this early.

He raises his ninja stars slowly, probably enjoying the feeling of superiority, and then quickly, he throws both of them at me like he's been doing it for years. They fly through the air too quickly, and before I know it, one of the blades strongly slices through my neck, and the other, through my stomach.

I don't feel a single thing before everything goes black.

**Penelope Starr POV.**

We've been walking for hours, with no Arnaldo in sight. We're not going to find him either, odds are, he's probably in the other side of this whole arena. But _no, _Cookie is _not _giving up until she finds him. Her life will not be complete until she kills him, so I really hope he just pops out of a tree right in front of us and throws himself at Cookie so we can finally end this nonsense.

"I know he's somewhere around here, I can _feel _him." Cookie says with determination as we walk up a never ending hill. We've been walking almost the whole time we've been here. We discovered that there is no night time in this arena, so there's really not a sense of time, so whenever we refer to yesterday we just say "Before the last anthem" or, "Two anthems ago". Great plan, huh?

"I'm hungry." Hazel whispers as her stomach strongly grumbles.

We didn't get any food in the Cornucopia, sadly. Cookie got her knives, I got a first aid kit, and Hazel ran behind me the whole time. That's pretty much how it went down. So by the end of this anthem, it would be ideal if we find a stream, or some nice edible plants, which Hazel knows all about, since she's a genius and everything.

"We'll stop somewhere soon Hazel. We need to find some water first." I say reassuringly.

"Then we're going the wrong way." Hazel protests. "If we want to find water, we have to go downhill. Water always accumulates at the lowest point."

Duh! Why didn't I think of that?

"Cookie, we have to turn around." I say, "This hill is never going to end, and we need to find water soon, we're all getting pretty thirsty and hungry."

"No!" Cookie shouts at me like if what I said really, really, _really _annoyed her all of a sudden. "We have to find Arnaldo first! And I know for a fact that he's at the top of this hill!"

"Cookie." I say, a little taken back from her tone of voice. "We have to turn around."

"No." She says sternly. "I'm not turning around."

"But we have to stick together." Hazel mumbles quietly to herself. I don't think she meant for me to hear.

"Please Cookie, come with us. We can come back the day of the next anthem. But just please come with us for now?" I plead.

"No." She repeats. "I'm not going anywhere but up." She starts turning around, when I suddenly hear Hazel blurt something out.

"Okay! But before you go, eat these with us. They'll give you enough energy to last you awhile." Hazel says, grabbing into one of her vest pockets and pulling out several small, perfectly round, crimson red berries.

Cookie looks at her for a moment, and at one point I think she's going to refuse to offer and walk away, but after a minute, she slowly walks down and grabs one of the berries.

"Are they good?" Cookie asks Hazel.

"Delicious."

Cookie slowly tosses the berry in her mouth. It takes her a while to swallow it, but once she does, she suddenly takes two steps back, and one step forward. Then she puts her hand on her head, and collapses on the ground.

"Cookie!" I scream. Stunned, I quickly bend down next to her and elevate her head on my arms.

Did Hazel just kill her?

"What did you do to her?" I scream at Hazel as I continue holding Cookies seemingly lifeless head.

"No! I would never…" She stops for a moment. "She only fainted."

"What? Why-?" I'm too confused to realize what's going on. Of course she isn't dead, no cannon sounded. But why would Hazel do such a thing? When will Cookie wake up? Did she have a bad reaction to the berry instead?

"I had to stop her." Hazel says quietly as she notices my reaction.

"By making her pass out? That's wrong, Hazel." I snarl.

"We need to stay together, Penelope!" Hazel screams out.

"If she wanted to go, we should of let her go Hazel. We don't control her!" I shout angrily.

"If she left, who would defend us? Neither of us know how to fight! We would be dead in days, or, well, anthems! We are a team! I'm the brains, you're the reason, and Cookie is the fighter. The fighter being the one we need to most! Penelope, I saved our lives!" I can tell by the tone in her voice that she really did think she was doing the right thing, but even though she is _right, _it was still wrong to forcefully cause Cookie to faint.

"I don't know if I can trust you anymore." I say, lowering my voice. "You could have at least told me first."

"I'm sorry." She says, looking down at the ground.

I stare at her for a moment, still completely shocked that _Hazel_ out of all people would do such a thing.

"When will she wake up?" I ask her.

"In about an hour." She says, still not looking at me.

"How are we going to carry her down the hill?"

"I don't know… we could-" I cut her off.

"You're 5'2, and weight less than 100, I'm 5'6, and weigh less than 120. We can't carry her. This was a really great idea, Hazel. I'm just so _excited _to see what Cookie is going to think of this when she wakes up." I say sarcastically.

"You're not going to tell her… are you?"

I look at her for a moment.

"No, because I know that if I did, she would kill you. And I sure as hell couldn't stop her. Consider yourself lucky that I'm reasonable." I place Cookies head on the ground and stand up. "But as punishment, you have to do one thing for me."

"I'll do anything." Hazel says quickly.

"Don't get too excited. It's nothing too fun really. Just find us some damn food so we don't starve to death on the second anthem."

"On it!" And before I know it, Hazel is already on the ground, looking for food.

_This isn't half bad._

**Ann McDermott POV.**

We only heard one cannon sound today, which isn't good. I'm expecting a Muttation and/or a Natural disaster to happen soon.

We probably have the biggest alliance known to Hunger Games history. It's Alexander, Glenn, Glenn's love interest Derek, who is also my District partner, George, Desiree, and Me. That makes 6 of us. Pretty big, huh?

We all sort of found each other after the blood bath, and thank God we didn't feel threatened either, because Alexander, George, and I have weapons. I honestly didn't care when they found me, which was everybody except Desiree. I didn't feel like they were going to kill me, actually, they seemed more afraid of me than I was of them, so I decided to hear them out and decided to join them.

They're a nice bunch, I'm not going to complain, but they're not the strongest people. All Desiree does is constantly talk about her hair, Glenn is totally against even holding a weapon, Derek does whatever Glenn does, and George, well, he never really talks. So that just leaves Alexander and I. Alexander's cool, but he can be so _annoying. _He always _tries _to talk to me, but never makes the effort in carrying on the conversation, and I swear he looks at me like I'm crazy now, because I told him that there was no nighttime, as weird as that sounds, so now I'm pretty sure he considers me a nut job. I don't really know what to think of him, and I don't think he knows what to think of me, so for now, we aren't on the best of terms.

I was on night duty, "last night", and to my surprise, there was no nighttime. It was the most confusing and exhausting thing ever. I have no concept of time anymore, but that's okay I guess, now I won't go crazy counting the days that I'm here.

So I told Alexander that tonight _he's _going to be on night duty, just so I can see the look on his stupid face the next… "day."

We all slept on the ground. We didn't get any supplies at all except a miniature bow and arrow, a pack of knives, two loaves of bread, five waters, and a small first aid kit that's only meant for one person. That's literally it, so for the rest of this… "week", we have to concentrate on finding food, and a good source of water.

The weather is extremely cold, and I hate it. I absolutely hate the cold with a passion. Back in District 7, we have some cold nights in the winter. We might get the occasional snow fall, sure, but I've never felt a cold as intense back in District 7 than I do here. This is a cold that buries deep into your bones, a cold that numbs your body and doesn't ever stop. This is a cold that grabs onto you and will _not let go_.

"Ann." Alexander says, bring me back into reality. "We're going to start looking for water."

I stand up and pick up my bow and arrow. For some reason, I don't know why, I feel like something very bad is going to happen in result of us looking for water. It's just a feeling though, and I don't base my decisions on my feelings.

So I just walk behind them, holding my bow and arrow tightly against my back. _Just in case._

**Surviving Tributes**

D1:

-Juanita Alba

-Maximillium Rochester

D2:

-Glenn Elizabeth

-Sapphire Amely

D3:

-Sarah (Smo) Morford

D4:

-Julietina Fox

-Corrosive Tanner

D5:

-Alexander Pastrana

-Desiree Story

D6:

-George Seibert

D7:

-Ann McDermott

-Derek France

D8:

-Hazel Nguyen

D9:

-Penelope Starr

-Manchester Emilio

D10:

-Arnaldo Armani

-Cookie Hannah

D11:

-Rosalina DiCaprio

D12:

-Halloween Meyer


	9. Find your love

**So, so so so so so sorry I took so long to update!**

**I started school, and they have been loadinggggg us with homework, **

**So much work, I barely have time to write!  
Ah!**

**I hope I didn't disappoint you all, I really was extremely unhappy not publishing this story sooner.**

**I'll make it up to you?  
**

**Love, ForeverAdrian.**

**Manchester Emilio POV.**

I don't know what it is about Rosalina, but I really like her. Like I feel like I can be my complete self when I'm around her, instead of being the overly confident, jocky self that I usually am when I'm around other people. She treats me in a way that nobody else has treated me before. She listens to me when I talk, giggles at my lame jokes, isn't all over me at all, and her voice, her voice is just so soothing and calming. The only emotion I can hear in her voice is compassion and I really, really like that.

We've been walking aimlessly for hours, with nothing to do. Yeah, we've got food, yeah, we've got water, but once thing we don't have is entertainment. And that's something I really want right about now.

"What should we do?" I ask her, walking by a particular looking bush.

"Well there's not much to do." She says, giggling. "We don't want to risk being killed."

"I know, but I'm just so bored. I'm sure there has to be _something _we could do to entertain ourselves."

She thinks for a moment. "Alright, well, do you wanna play I spy?"

"I spy? What's that?" I ask, never having heard of such a thing.

"Well," she starts off, "it's a game where you say, 'I spy with my little eye, something green.' After you say that, the other person you're playing with has to guess what you were looking at, and if they guess right, they win."

"That sounds so incredibly… gay." I say, putting an emphasis on the "y".

"It's not!" She says laughing. "If you're that bored, you might as well try it."

I sigh for a moment. "Alright, let's give this a try."

We stop and sit right below a tall golden tree. I'm guessing Rosalina is going first, so I just sit there and look at all the possible things she might be looking at.

"I spy, with my little eye, something brown." She looks at me and smiling.

Wow, everything is brown around here. The trees, some of the leaves, the mud, the rocks, everything surrounding me, basically!

"Ummmm…." I start off. "Is it… that tree over there?" I point to an extremely large tree that's standing right in front of us_. It has to be that one_, I think to myself, _that's the only thing it could be._

"Nope." She informs me. She giggles to herself a little bit more, then looks down to the ground. I follower her eyes to the direction they're pointing. A brown leaf stuck underneath a rock.

"Let's see…" I say, pretending like I'm thinking about what it could be. "Is it that dead leaf underneath that rock?" I point to the leaf and she's suddenly astonished. Her mouth drops and her eyes widen, but then her shocked expression turns into a smile, and then she starts laughing.

"Well…" She says, looking at the leaf and then at me, "You're a pro!"

"I know." I say confidently. "I get that a lot."

She manages a small smile, obviously not appreciating my sarcasm, and announces that it's my turn.

"I spy," I say, looking around, "with my little eye," I look at Rosalina to make sure I'm saying it right, and she reassures me by nodding and smiling, "Something green."

"Green?" She asks, confused. "But there's nothing green here?"

"Oh, I think you're wrong." I tell her, smiling with my confident smile, because I know that the thing I'm thinking of is genius.

"Ummmm…" She bites her bottom lip, looking all around her.

"Come on, we don't have all day!" I say, nudging her jokingly.

She looks around for another moment, but I know she won't get it. The thing I'm thinking of is impossible for her to find.

"Well, you beat me. I have no idea what it could possibly be."

I stare at her for a moment, and once we are absolutely silent, I smile.

"Your eyes." I say quietly, still holding my smile.

She stays silent for a moment, but I can see some pink start forming around her cheeks.

"So I guess it's your turn again." She says, breaking the intense stare.

"I spy, with my little eye, something pink. A beautiful shade of pink." I say, in my softest, sweetest voice.

"The sky?" She says immediately.

"Prettier."

"Well I don't know." She says desperately. "That's the only thing that's pink out here."

"You're missing one thing." I say, softly again, too entangled by the feeling of lust to stop myself. "It's your lips."

Her eyes widen, and then she looks down, embarrassed. Her cheeks get even redder, and for some reason, I find that extremely irresistible, and without any warning at all, I guide my head to hers. We make eye contact for a split second, and before I know it, our lips are locked, and it's the best feeling in the world.

_Day Two._

**Arnaldo Armani POV.**

The anthem only revealed one face tonight; Garth Spahr, District 8.

The Games are going too slow, I can see that now. If these stupid imbeciles are just going to wait around for a mutation to come along and kill them, that's fine with me. But myself? No. I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that these Games go faster.

I don't really know where I am, but I haven't seen anybody. I've been sitting by this enormous frozen lake for the past couple of days now, barely feeding off of the few fish that live by the bank. It gets very cold at one particular part of the never ending day, so what I do is when I start feeling the cold sink into my skin, I just get my hand made javelin, get some small fish, and start a fire. I kill two birds with one stone that way. I get to be warm when everybody else is probably cold, and I get to eat some good fish. Since it somehow never converts to night time here, I don't worry about getting caught too much, and if the smoke attracts people, I'll just kill 'em. Simple as that.

I'm sitting by a rotting tree now. It gets boring, being alone so much, I'm not gonna lie, but I won't ever let it show. My priority is to get out of here alive, not make friends. I think I can manage a month of total solitude. If anything, it will probably do me a favor. Some free time to think, you know?

I suddenly hear a loud rumble coming from the lake. It sounds like something is tearing or breaking through the thin ice, the sound my ice maker makes when it's developing ice. I'm confused for a moment, but I don't take long to react. It can only be one thing. A mutation.

I run immediately, but not too far. My curiosity sinks in more than anything.

It's like the Capitol can read my mind, a hideous looking monster jumps out of the icy lake and lands just where I was sitting, crushing the trees around it. Time freezes, and so does my body. I'm too stunned with horror to even realize that if I don't move, I will get eaten by this… this monster.

It's possibly as big as three school buses put together, and it is incredibly long and slimy. It has two very long antennas on each side of its mouth, and they keep slithering like a snake. Its skin… it looks like its decomposing. I can see its bones everywhere. Its ribs are sticking out noticeably, its eyes are sunken and black, and its spine looks like spikes sticking out in a perfect line, like a dinosaur of some sort.

The creature suddenly lets out a horrifying roar. All this time that I was thinking about its physical attributes I could have ran away, but I'm about 5 feet away from it, and fish can't walk on land, let alone breathe, so maybe if I step back slowly…

The smallest movement of my legs sends the creature flaring its razor sharp teeth at me. They look like the teeth of a shark, and one of its teeth is probably the size of my waist all the way down to my toes. I step back again, even slower, not letting myself get too intimidated with what I see.

It does nothing, but it hasn't hidden its teeth, it's like it's ready for attack at any given moment.

_One step, two step, three step, four steps…_

Suddenly one of its sickening moving antennas lunges towards me and wraps around my legs. I let out a small yelp before I'm on the ground and being dragged towards the mouth of the monster.

I dig my nails deep into the muddy ground, trying not to look at the bottomless pit I'm about to be ripped to shreds in. I have a strong enough hold to challenge this monster in a horrifying tug of war, the rope being me. I can feel it pull me harder, and my grip feels like it's going fail me, but for some reason, I don't feel like giving up_. There has to be away out of this_, I think to myself. _There's always a way_.

_My javelin!_

With one hand holding on to the wet earth for dear life, I stick my hand down the long pockets the Game's fashion designers provided us, and pull out my javelin. This is obviously not going to kill a creature this size, but if I can hit it a place where it'll hurt me enough to let go…

It's now or never.

I let go of the ground and I'm suddenly launched into the air. The creature looks up, opening its mouth wider for the fresh new piece of flesh it's about to get, except he's not gonna get shit, because I've got him beat. Just when I'm about three seconds away from death, I throw my javelin with all my might right towards his eye.

_Bulls eye!_

It hits the creature straight in the eye!

It lets out a sickening high pitched scream. I'm suddenly thrown into the air, then almost within a second slammed back down to the ground, right on my face. I feel several bones in my body shatter almost immediately, but I can feel that the antenna isn't wrapped around my legs anymore.

This is a perfect time to run.

I try to push myself up, but almost instantly my arms start wobbling and I fall right back down. The high pitched screams have quickly subsided, which makes me believe that it crawled back into the water, but you can't be too safe. Not after what happened just moments ago.

I try to push myself up again, only to result in failure.

"Damn it." I curse myself. The monster slammed me down so hard against the ground that now my bones have as much strength as a bowl of jell-o. But you have to work with what you have, so if I can't fucking lift myself up, then I'm gonna crawl, damn it.

Slowly, but surely, I stretch one arm forward; dig my hand as deep as I can into the wet ground, and pull. I scream out in pain. My knee, something is wrong with my fucking knee! It's pulsing horribly, and I can feel something warm start accumulating around my leg and thigh. It feels like someone just smashed my knee in with a hammer, over and over again.

I can't move, but I can't stay here either. I'll die in no time if I don't make an effort to move, but my knee isn't letting me do that. I don't know what condition it's in, but for the time being, I just can't afford to make any movements.

I'm probably going to bleed to death by the next anthem, which inst exactly the best way to go, but I guess it beats being eaten by a giant dead catfish, so I guess I should just accept it now, so I won't be surprised later.

I really wanted to go home.

**Halloween Meyer POV.**

I've been stalking Sarah Morford ever since the beginning of the Games. I don't want to kill her just yet; she's someone I want to save for last. After seeing her massacre Bolt in the very beginning, then trying to save Autumns life but helplessly end up killing her within 10 minutes of saving her just fascinates me so much. I can tell she's going to be a hard girl to beat, she's fast and smart; sly if anything, and I love a challenge, so who knows, maybe this girl will give me a run for my money. _Literally._

The resist the hold back the urge to kill her is immense. I've been lacking the general excitement I get when I kill someone. Izzy and Garth weren't enough, I _need _more, but something about Sarah just tells me to be patient. It's the little voice in my head is telling me to just hide among the trees, watch her carefully, discover everything about her, and when the time is right, kill her, because it will be the best kill I've ever had, and probably ever will.

I usually follow the instructions of the voice in my head, and he gets very angry when I don't. Last time I didn't follow his instructions, I stabbed my cat in the eye.

I've been watching her for hours, but she's still not doing anything. She's just been sitting there, looking at the tree ahead of her and twiddling her thumbs. She's thinking about something, but what? The two people she so gruesomely killed, or just the fact that she's just in The Hunger Games? The realization never sets in; I've realized that. I may enjoy killing, a lot, but that's when I know for a fact that I'm safe doing it. In here, you're not safe doing anything. At any moment, an arrow could pierce right through my heart, a pack of wolves could come running towards me in the distance, or the trees could let out a toxin that could kill me in seconds. I'm not saying I'm scared, because I'm not, if anything, it excites me, but when that possibility of death rings in the back of your mind, you don't feel the same.

No one really wants to die. People who commit suicide probably always regret what they've done the second they're slipping away from this beautiful place we call earth into the dark abyss of the nothing. One thing I do like about The Hunger Games though is that they _expect _you to kill, and killing is something that I love to do, and quite frankly, something that I'm good at. So in all honesty, I don't know what to think about being the Games. It hasn't really set in yet, probably never will. I'm in the Hunger Games, how many people get to say that after 10 years? Only the elite. Hopefully that will be me.

I nibble on the dull looking fruit I found on the ground while I was following Sarah. I don't have many items, other than my ninja stars, the ropes I got from Garth, and a canteen of water. Finding this fruit was pure luck, especially since everything here is mostly dead. I don't quite remember what the fruit is called, but it's not that uncommon. I think my mom called it an apple once, or was it a citrus? Hm, I don't remember, but I'm going to go with citrus. That just strikes me as the name of something round and green, like this.

I bite into it slowly, savoring the sour juices that greet my parched tongue. It's a little too sour for my taste, but I think I can manage, it taste good for the most part, except that for some reason, it's outer skin or whatever, is getting stuck in between my teeth, and I'm immediately disgusted. _This sucks, _I think to myself, and toss it behind me. _Now I need to find some floss, stupid fruit. _

Sarah must have heard the thump the apple made when it hit the ground, because now she's up and alert, looking right at my general direction.

I quickly hide myself behind my tree, not even risking the chance that she might have missed me. She was squinting when she was looking in my direction, so she must have seen something, she must have seen _me. _

I hear footsteps now, coming closer and closer. Should I attack? No, the voice in my head gave me clear instructions to follower her and nothing more. But what if she attacks me? Is it really worth the risk? I could run now, I'm a fast runner, I can beat her, but I just don't wanna make _him_ angry. Ah, the agony! What do I do?

"Hm, this is strange." Sarah says, picking up the apple. "Someone's been here."

I freeze for a moment. I think I feel my heart stop, and for the first time _ever _in my life, I'm scared for my own safety.

She's standing right in front of me, oblivious that I'm only 5 feet away from her, grabbing the apple and inspecting the bite that _I _made.

She puts her index finger on the chunk of missing citrus, and after swabbing it gently, rubs her index finger against her thumb.

"Fresh." She murmurs to herself. "Someone was _just _here." She looks around, but doesn't cower. How does she not see me? I'm _right here._ She must be a fucking blind idiot not to realize I'm literally almost right next to her. But she just shrugs her shoulders, takes a bite out of the citrus, and within a second, disappears. I can see the blanket of leaves crush themselves beneath her invisible feet as she's walking back to camp, and I immediately realize that by some sort of miracle, I'm invisible too. The citrus makes you invisible!

It's a fucking miracle! Words cannot even fathom how shocked and impressed I am at the Gamemakers for actually making an edible substance turn you invisible. I mean, I wanna give them a fucking standing ovation right now. This is _outstanding, simply outstanding!_

I'm invisible, _I'm_ invisible! Not to myself, but to others! I guess that citrus wasn't in the ground out of pure coincidence after all. It was meant to be found! Hah, wow. This is great. I wanna run up to invisible Sarah right now, steal the citrus back from her, and kiss it all day long, which would be forever.

_I'm fucking invisible!_

The Tributes.

D1:

-Juanita Alba

-Maximillium Rochester

D2:

-Glenn Elizabeth

-Sapphire Amely

D3:

-Sarah (Smo) Morford

D4:

-Julietina Fox

-Corrosive Tanner

D5:

-Alexander Pastrana

-Desiree Story

D6:

-George Seibert

D7:

-Ann McDermott

-Derek France

D8:

-Hazel Nguyen

D9:

-Penelope Starr

-Manchester Emilio

D10:

-Arnaldo Armani

-Cookie Hannah

D11:

-Rosalina DiCaprio

D12:

-Halloween Meyer


	10. Broken in time

**Cookie Hanna POV.**

My eyes are strained from the constant sunlight. I haven't been able to rest while I've been here, partly because of the sun itself, but mostly because I haven't found Arnaldo yet. He's alive still, I know that, but the thought that he might be lurking around me, watching me, ready to kill me, just infuriates me. But what will really send me over the edge is if someone else gets to him before I do. That's why we have to keep moving! If we stop, even for a little while, that's wasting precious time. And I _promised _myself I would kill him. I never break a promise to myself, ever.

I had a bad reaction to the berry Hazel gave me. According to them, I was out cold for about two hours, which doesn't really surprise me, because when I pass out, whether it be from a rough night, or an accidental overdose of Tylenol, I'm always usually lifeless for more than an hour.

That was yesterday though, er, I mean, last anthem ago, so now I'm over it. I was scorching mad when I woke up; I almost cut Hazel up into a million little pieces! It was _her _dumb fault that I passed out, she _was_ the one that gave me the bad berries, but Penelope luckily calmed me down. That would have never happened if she wasn't a fucking idiot, and she's apparently _so_ smart. But whatever, I'm over it now. Hazel's little stupidity isn't going to stop me from achieving my goal.

Killing Arnaldo.

Hazel found us some water and edible plants while I was out, which is good, because we had absolutely nothing. But now, since I don't trust Hazel at all anymore, I have to watch her eat everything before me. She's like my canary right now, and all the food she brings or offers me is the cave. This is The Hunger Games too, maybe that berry was supposed to kill me. There are so many possibilities, but I just know one thing for sure, Hazel can no longer be trusted.

"What do you guys want to do today?" Penelope asks while she's munching on a weird looking plant.

"Look for Arnaldo." I say quickly.

Penelope throws a quick glance at Hazel, as if she's saying "Seriously? Again?" But I don't care. I don't care what they think, or what they do. I'm finding Arnaldo, I'm doing me. And they can't stop me, so, I guess their opinion is insignificant.

"Well," Penelope says slowly, "I guess we should get moving."

I'm the first one to stand up. I grab my water and a few plants which I've deemed healthy, and start walking in a random direction.

"Wait for us!" Penelope yells with an annoyed tone.

I stop for a moment, but don't look back.

"You guys are so slow."

"Well I'm sorry Hazel and I aren't really as excited for finding Arnaldo as you are." Penelope says, still sounding annoyed.

I don't say anything back, but continue walking. I can tell Penelope is mad, but I honestly couldn't give three shits. If she doesn't want to come with me, she doesn't have to. So she obviously wants to stay with me, but she knows well enough that if she does, all we're going to do is look for Arnaldo. So, I guess she's the one being dumb, not me.

"So tell me about your home life, Cookie." Penelope asks as I jump over a small river that's frozen in place.

"There's nothing really to know." I say hastily. I don't really like talking about my home life, because it's surprisingly normal. I was always the wild child, the girl that my father never under stood, the girl that my sister envied, and the girl that my mother wished she never had. And everyone knows that, that's why people don't usually ask me about my family. But obviously Penelope won't know, so I'll cut her a break.

"There has to be _something."_ She answers back, apparently really curious about my personal life.

"I have a mom, a dad, and two sisters. One is my age, the other is a newborn. I live in a big house, and I consider myself well off. That's all you need to know."

We walk in silence for a moment, but I can feel that Penelope has loads of more questions to ask me. I have a normal family, sure, but that doesn't mean_ I, myself, _have a normal life. I've done things that you would probably only find in the movies, things that would probably disgust and revolt people, things that would be described as unforgivable and inhuman. Anything that's happened to me, I've brought on to myself. I would have a normal life, if I wasn't so stupid, and didn't depend on drugs, alcohol, and boys to make my life interesting, but there's the thing. I _like _my life interesting, and I would never take back the things that I've done. I'm a wild child, that's the nickname, and I love it so much.

Cookie Hanna, the wild child.

I live by the nickname.

**Glenn Elizabeth POV.**

Not being able to sleep the whole time I've been here has been driving me crazy! I'm sorry, _kill_ me if I'm whining too much, but honestly, it's not that easy to get a good "nights" rest when first of all, there is no fricken night, and second of all, you have to sleep on top of wet, muddy leaves. It's absolutely _wretched!_ Especially when you used to go to bet at 7 o'clock every night in your comfortable, king sized bed.

The Gamemakers hate me, I swear!

We were walking for hours, with pretty much nothing to do, when we found this small lake right in the middle of a group of trees. They were all surrounding it, and it was pretty much a miracle we didn't miss it, thanks to my watchful eye, so I guess the Gamemakers didn't want us to find it, or that was a part of the challenge. Hmm, I don't know. I guess were just lucky.

We've been sitting here, drinking fresh water pretty much the whole day. Small talk died out a long time ago, so now were just sitting here, staring off into space. Derek will occasionally whisper something to me, but I can't really hear him, so I just nod and smile.

I've always had horrible hearing, but I wasn't born with it. When I was a baby, I got the worst case of yellow fever. I was about two months old, and it was a constant battle to save my life. My mom had to take me to constant trips to the hospital, but no help was given out. Basically, in District 2, the doctors choose if they think you're worthy enough to be healed, or kept alive even. I, surprisingly, wasn't one of them. Just kidding, that's totally sarcastic. I'm used to being rejected. Have been since I was two months old. But anyways, once the doctors gave up on me, my mother had to take matters into her own hands. She read every single book known to mankind that mentioned yellow fever. All she would do was read, read, and read, while my dad, in the other room, tried to keep me alive. I don't know how she did it, I didn't bother asking, but she gained so much knowledge on how to cure yellow fever by reading all these books that slowly, and only using natural medical supplies that could be found in the forest, she saved my life. But of course, there's always consequences.

We wasted too much time. Or, I mean, the doctors wasted too much time. All that time they had that could have been used to save my life, was wasted in useless back and forth, so now, thanks to the lovely doctors of District 2, I have permanent hearing damage, that no technology, rehab, ancient remedy, or faith can fix.

I've learned to live with it though. I mean, for as long as I remember I've had it, so it's nothing weird or different to me. I guess it's just more annoying than anything, but oh well. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

"Who wants to look for some food with me?" Alexander asks amidst all the silence.

"I'll go with you!" Derek exclaims like he's been waiting for Alexander to ask that question this whole time.

"I'll go too." I mutter, not liking the idea of Alexander and Derek going off some place by themselves, leaving us here defenseless.

"Why don't we all go?" Alexander asks us.

We all look at each other. We are all so bored out of our minds that we wouldn't mind a little adventure right about now. So slowly, and groggily, we gather our miniscule amount of food, weapons, bags, and water, and start heading out north.

You see, the problem with this arena is that it's just like a forest, but somehow, some way, the Gamemakers have been able to make it look like it's stuck in Autumn time. Meaning, that all the trees are dead, the ground is covered with a thick layer of brown and golden leaves, it is very cold, it is very muddy and wet, and there is no source of vegetation anywhere. We were able to find some edible plants that Derek was able to identify, surprisingly, around the lake, but we, not being able to control ourselves, ate almost all of it.

Also, for some reason, this arena is full of hills. There's not one moment when you don't feel like you're either walking up, or walking down. I don't get what the purpose of that is, but I really hope it doesn't have a hidden meaning, or were all screwed.

After walking for a half an hour, with no luck of finding anything, I hear someone say something that almost brings tears to my eyes.

"Guys, I think I found something!" I hear George shout as were all just looking around for nothing.

We all look to where he's pointing at, and after about a minute of not seeing anything, we finally see, on top of a very small tree, a nice little birds nest, except, the eggs inside the birds nest aren't so little. There are three of them, and they are all about the size of my whole head. The colors of the eggs don't really clash with our surroundings, which could explain why it was so hard for us to find it at first. The eggs, all three of them, are an orange red, with a slight golden stripe curving all around them. They're beautiful, actually. They almost shine against the sun, but there's only one problem. There is no sun, so it must just shine on its own.

"Who wants breakfast for dinner?" Derek asks, with a wide grin.

I can almost feel drool slipping out of the side of my mouth as we approach the tree.

**George Seibert POV.**

It took us about a half an hour before we finally got to eat these eggs. None of us really know how to build a fire, and it took all 6 of us to carry those eggs down to where we put our things down. Those eggs were probably heavier than a five year old kid.

We've only eaten one egg; we're saving the other two for later. It's been about three hours and we are still not done eating it, we just keep making more, and more, and more. All this yolk could probably feed my district for weeks.

We keep asking for seconds, all of us too hungry to even care about our upset stomachs. I think Ann is the only one who got smart and stopped eating. Oh well, more for me anyways. I really wouldn't be surprised that if in five hours I puke this all up, which won't be too good. So I better slow it down.

It's getting very cold all of us a sudden, which means that the anthem is going to play soon. I'm just so glad that I made it through another day. I mean, I would have never thought I was going to make it this far at the beginning, so you never know. I just might win this thing after all.

"Do you guys hear that?" Ann says suddenly as were all just sitting around the fire talking.

We all sit in silence, trying to listen for anything out of the norm, but I hear nothing.

"Huh, I can't hear anything?" Glenn says confusedly as Ann stands up.

"_Shut up, Glenn!" _Ann says annoyed. Ann puts her hand around her ear and stretches her neck. I know she can hear something, I don't doubt it, but it can be anything. The wind, the fire crackling, the leaves moving against the wind, little squirrels or bunnies scurrying across the mud, but I don't take my chances.

I stand up with her, and try my hardest to listen to any abnormal sound she might be hearing. Everyone soon follows, except Glenn and Derek, who are just sitting around the fire with confused and scared looks on their faces.

And that's when I hear it.

It sounds like a soccer ball has just zoomed through my ear at 125mph. I suddenly feel a force of wind so strong that it immediately puts out the fire, and knocks us all down to our knees.

"What is that?" I hear Alexander scream as the winds just keep getting stronger and stronger, strong enough to start dragging Glenn across the wet floor.

No one answers him though, because none of us know.

The winds keep getting stronger and stronger, and even I can feel myself start slipping across the mixture of mud and leaves.

Glenn keeps screaming "Oh my God, Oh my God" repeatedly as Derek tries to hold her in place, when suddenly, out of nowhere, within a split second, the winds stop.

My arms are trembling, and my mind is incapable of registering what just happened. I don't even have a chance to look up when I hear the animalistic roar come from the tree were we took the eggs from.

I slowly look up, not even bothering to move from the position I'm in. There, towering almost as tall as the tree stands something that I have never even fathomed before ever in my entire life.

Bird like, to say the least. This creature has the body of a giant bird, except it has no feathers. Its wings are pure skin, like the wings of a bat, and on each wing it has one single claw standing directly straight up right on top of it. Its beak is probably as long as me, and I can see very clearly a row of razor sharp teeth, probably the length of my arm, sticking out of its mouth. It has a pulsing red crest on top of its head that goes up in an arch formation, and it's somehow standing on all fours. I can't really see it from here, but I think I can spot two very skinny legs behind it. Its wing must have a sole at the bottom of it, because there's no way this thing can stand on all fours without some extra help.

It's looking up at the nest were the eggs were, and, not finding anything there, roars even louder.

I swear I feel the ground shake as the bird like creature starts trashing around, knocking down almost every tree around it. It hasn't spotted us yet, we're a little too far, but I know that if we stay here we'll be as dead as her eggs.

I look over at Alexander, just to see what he's doing, when I see that he's starting to stand up. Very slowly, I do the same, and soon the rest of us are all up right, staring at the beast very stiffly.

We stand there, perfectly still. The bird is now tearing up the bark of a very thick tree and throwing it around like it's as light as a feather. I don't know how the Gamemakers could ever make a creature this big and strong. This must have taken them years! If there's something that I've never learned about in school, it's probably the Gamemakers. It remains a misery how they make such horrifying creatures.

We all stare in silence, not knowing if the bird is going to eventually fly away or spot us, when Derek makes the biggest mistake of his life. He steps back and breaks a twig.

The creatures head suddenly turns into our direction. We all gasp, but don't move. The bird looks at us for a second, all of us, drool seeping out of its mouth. It's probably deciding whether or not to kill us, but it becomes very clear it_ wants_ to kill is when it suddenly looks up at the sky, lets out an ear shattering roar, and charges straight at us.

We all scream and run in different directions, but I can see all of us running alongside each other except Desiree and Derek, who I think ran the opposite direction.

I can hear the creature behind us, but I'm not sure if it's running after us or not. But I don't take the risk, I don't even look back. As far as I'm concerned, that thing can be right behind me and I don't even know it.

We keep running, and running, and running, and running, all alongside each other, even after the roars have subsided. She must have found her eggs, because we left all our supplies back there, and the eggs, last time I saw them, were completely exposed. That might have been what she wanted anyways, not to kill us, but to find her eggs. Either way, I'm glad we got the hell out of there.

I'm positive that we ran more than a mile. When adrenaline is rushing through you, and all that's on your mind is a need to survive, your body and mind set changes. I mean, all I was thinking about when I was running away from that thing was surviving. When you have a very high will to live, anything is possible. I'm not the fittest person out there, and back home, running a mile would have been a death sentence. I've only been here three days and the arena is already changing me.

"Are you guys alright?" Alexander manages to say as he's desperately gasping for air.

"Yeah." I barely manage to say, reaching a halt.

Ann has her arm around Glenn's shoulder, apparently trying to help her up. She must have fallen while we were running and we just never noticed. She's scraped up pretty bad too, but there's nothing we can do. We left all our supplies back there. All we could do for now is wrap a piece of cloth around her knee.

"Where's Derek?" Glenn asks desperately, despite her condition.

"He ran the other way." Alexander says seriously, knowing the relationship Glenn and Derek have. "But I think he's alright. He had a good head start."

She manages a smile before she drops to the ground and passes out cold.

The Tributes.

D1:

-Juanita Alba

-Maximillium Rochester

D2:

-Glenn Elizabeth

-Sapphire Amely

D3:

-Sarah (Smo) Morford

D4:

-Julietina Fox

-Corrosive Tanner

D5:

-Alexander Pastrana

-Desiree Story

D6:

-George Seibert

D7:

-Ann McDermott

-Derek France

D8:

-Hazel Nguyen

D9:

-Penelope Starr

-Manchester Emilio

D10:

-Arnaldo Armani

-Cookie Hannah

D11:

-Rosalina DiCaprio

D12:

-Autumn Renee

-Halloween Meyer


	11. Wanting, but never having

**A/N- You guys can sponsor a Tribute if you want too. Since this is my first fic, I'm not going to be picky about the whole thing. Meaning, I'm not going to do the whole money stuff. Basically, all I'm going to do is that if you review or PM me saying that you want to sponsor this Tribute and send them a gift, I'll consider their situation and how I want to go about with the story line and I'll PM you telling you if your gift has been accepted or not.**

**Just a hint. If you review telling me what you want to sponsor, there's a higher chance it'll be accepted. **

_**Maybe.**_

**On with the story. **

**Love, ForeverAdrian.**

_Day three._

**Juanita Alba POV.**

I'm the first one to immediately hear the rustling of leaves and heavy breaths outside my tent. I grab a particularly large knife out of my pack, and without even bothering waking up Julietina, who is snoring like a 40 year old man, I start crawling out of my tent, fully alert.

Since it's been a slow last couple of days, my thirst for blood is at its highest peak. I want to make this death interesting, some of it for show, but most of it for my personal satisfaction. I need to kill; we've been lazing around here for days. We are probably losing sponsors by the minute, and our reputation as careers is probably diminishing every day that goes by without a fresh kill.

I step outside and look around. A small fog crawls out of my mouth with every breath I take. There is no way this person could have made it far enough for me not to see them anymore and it's not like I was being loud enough for them to hear me and run away.

Something not right here. It must have been an animal then, because whatever was just running outside just a moment ago is gone.

I curse under my breath and put my knife in my pocket. I can't let another day go by of us just lazing around here. We need to pack up camp and look for Tributes, if not, were going to be here forever, because I'm sure as hell none of the other Tributes are going to kill anybody. Or, if that doesn't happen, I'm sure the Capitol will send some strange Mutts after us as punishment for not fulfilling our duties as careers. I can't let that happen to us, or more importantly, me.

I let out one more icy breath before I turn around to crawl back in the tent, and when I do, I suddenly wish I hadn't.

"Hi um… can you please help me?" The girl standing behind my tent says as the blood dripping from her fingers makes a popping noise when it hits the tent.

I stand there for a moment, completely shocked and appalled from what I see before me.

"What… happened to you?" I say in horror, not even trying to speak in a French accent.

"Please help me." The girl laughs for a moment, just one single laugh, and then suddenly starts crying and walking towards me. I step back, horrified.

This girl… something attacked her. The skin from the bottom of her eyes, all the way down to her chin is almost all gone. Her nose is hanging off by a piece of skin that's barely holding it to her face, and her arms have these deep claw marks that go down from her shoulder, all the way down to her wrist. Deep, gushing cuts that's I'm sure no one can survive with. I think I might be able to see a little bone.

"I- I can't help you." I say, stepping back even more. I pull my knife out immediately and hold it in front of me. The girl starts sobbing now. Should I kill her? Yes, I should, but how am I going to even get close to her. I feel like I want to vomit a hundred times over right now. I've never seen such a thing ever in my life, especially in The Hunger Games. This girl should be dead; there is no reason for her to still be living. For God's sake, me killing her is going to be a favor.

I lunge towards her as she starts to realize her nose is hanging off by a thin strip of skin off her face. She doesn't scream, just closes her eyes as I plunge my knife deep into her throat. The stench of blood is powerful and metallic, and by the sight of it, her skin is starting to rot too. I can't hold it in anymore.

I pull my knife out right when the cannon sounds. I run over to the nearest tree, bend over, and puke my brains out.

This is all too much for me; I never thought it would be this way. I never in my life would have thought I would see something like that, let alone experience it in real life. I thought killing would be easy, which it was, but if that's what some of us are going to look like by the time this Game is over, I want out.

I'm just so sick and repulsed by what I just saw I don't even realize the hovercraft come and pick her body up. I just want to know what the hell happened to her! It had to have been a Mutt, no tribute can leave someone with claw marks like that, especially as deep as they were. Her face was so incredibly torn up too I don't even know how she survived as long as she did.

"You okay?" I hear Maximillium ask from behind me. I don't turn around right away, scared that he might see the fear and disgust in my face.

"Oui. Everything perfect." I say in my accent. I can't believe I lost control and spoke perfect English to that girl, now everyone in Panem is either going to call me a fraud, or look the other way. It doesn't matter, I know for a fact I've lost sponsors.

"Then why are you standing out here by yourself? You sound sick. And I think I heard a hovercraft too…"

"I am fine. Believe in me." He doesn't say anything back at first, but I know he has many questions lingering in his mind. "No hovercraft here."

There's complete silence among us for a moment.

"You're hiding something." He says coldly. "Don't make me lose my trust in you Juanita, it'll be the biggest mistake of your life." I hear him start walking away, maybe to start waking everyone up. I don't know, I haven't turned around. I can't face him. I'm so horrified with what I just saw that I'm going to be thinking about it for hours, days, maybe weeks.

If he sees how weak I am, he might kill me. I need to avoid him for at least the rest of the day. I'll have to avoid everybody. I need a day of solitude, so I can empty my mind from everything I saw. I need to get a grip, this is not what a District 1 Tribute acts like, especially one that has to win.

I really have nothing to lose at this point. All I have to do now is forget.

**Arnaldo Armani POV.**

The light… it's so bright.

My whole body is numb.

I'm so incredibly thirsty.

Water.

_Water._

I don't know how I'm still alive.

My knee. It hurts so bad. Is it even still there?

I should be dead. Why am I still alive?

I can't think anymore. My tongue is dry.

I need water.

_Water._

My bones feel like concrete.

I can't stand to be in this position anymore.

I feel like road kill.

Road kill that hasn't been killed yet.

I hope my family isn't watching.

I hope the Peacekeepers have told them that it's alright not to look anymore.

Because I'm as good as dead.

I can barely breathe.

My chest barely moves.

_Water._

I hear voices.

I've been hearing voices this whole time.

But these voices are getting closer.

They're shouting something.

Maybe they have some water.

_Water._

I close my eyes.

They won't have anything for me.

I hope they kill me.

That way my family will be put through their misery.

But I feel someone grab my arm.

They're saying something to me.

But I don't listen.

All I want is some water.

"We're going to help you."

One of them says.

That makes me smile.

But I don't want to be helped.

All I want is some water.

As my smile fades, everything turns to black.

Maybe in heaven they'll have some water.

_Water._

**Sarah Morford POV**.

I've been alone all this time, which is okay. I don't mind it one bit. I haven't been in much trouble at all while I've been here either, just the powerful hunger and thirst that comes over you once you've been in the arena for more than one day. I'm trying to avoid confrontation as much as possible, but that's not to say I won't fight if I have to. If I feel threatened by someone, I'll kill them, but I'm not going to go on killing people randomly like a fucking psychopath just because I feel like it. I'm not going to scoop down to a careers level, I'm better than that.

Surprisingly enough, the career pack has been very quiet since we've started. They killed a couple people in the blood bath, that's all I know of, but I'm sure they've killed more since then. Two cannons have gone off since the beginning, so it's possible that they were the cause of those deaths, but I wouldn't know. I've been in this exact same spot since the Games have started.

I'm surprised the Gamemakers haven't sent some crazy mutt after me yet. Usually when a Tribute that has potential to fight doesn't do so, they send some mutt after them to get the Games moving and more exciting, but they haven't done that with me, so I'm guessing they don't consider me a valuable enough Tribute to go waste their mutts on.

I wonder what my mom is thinking right now. She's probably thinking about how much of a lazy ass I am, even in the Hunger Games. No, No, No, she's probably thinking why it's taken me so long to get killed, yeah. That sounds more like her.

I used to hate thinking about my mom, but that's all I do now that I'm here. It's funny, just the thought of her doing something stupid or accidentally setting herself on fire just entertains me for hours. She's the last person I would have thought I was going to be thinking about in the Hunger Games. It's weird how things work, but that's just how life is I-

I hear a twig snap.

I feel a surge of adrenaline shoot through my body as I'm suddenly completely alert to everything in my surroundings.

I know someone's there. Only a human foot could have made a noise that loud. Or maybe the Gamemakers have finally sent one of their filthy mutts after me. Both are equally likely. I guess making it through the Games without a fight was just too good to be true.

"I heard you. Now come out." I order to whoever's out there.

No one shows their face, so I say it louder.

Still nothing.

"Let me make this easy for you. If you come out now, maybe I'll think twice about your death. I might even over look it for now. It's a limited time offer." It may sound like I'm taunting whoever is out there, but I'm not. I'm being completely serious.

"Well then, I guess I might have to take you up on that offer."I hear someone whisper in a snake like tone. I let out a loud gasp and spring forward, and then turn around to face my threat.

I recognize him almost immediately. It's Halloween Meyer. District 12, got a nice 12 on his Training score. He could probably kill me in a second if he wanted to, but I'm not going to let him know that. If I show my fear, he'll know I'm easy prey. And I do not want to fall prey to him.

"What do you want? Is there a reason you were following me?"

"Yes. There is." He replies, stepping forward. I immediately step back. I don't like were this is going.

"What do you want?" I ask him again, now with an angrier tone to my voice.

"I could want a lot of things, Sarah. I could want your food, I could want your water, I could want your weapon, or, I could want pieces of your flesh in my hands. The possibilities are endless." His "S" trails off just like a snake. He's trying to scare me, I'm no idiot, but I can't help but think that he's winning. This kid frightens me more than anything right now, but I'm sure that if he wanted to kill me, he would have done it already. He doesn't seem like the type to play with its food.

"You don't want anything, do you? You're just doing this because I caught you."

His evil grin fades into a smile, but he still keeps circling around m like a fucking hyena.

"That's where you're wrong. I've been following you this whole time, Sarah. Looks like you're the idiot for not noticing."

"If you're going to kill me. Do it now. Don't waste my fucking time."

He chuckles to himself.

"Oh, you give up so easily, Sarah. That's such a disappointment. I thought you were better than _that._ I just might have to kill you after all." His smile turns into a grin again as he pulls out two small oval shaped pieces of metal from his pocket. He presses a red button at the very bottom of them, and then suddenly, the metal bars start transforming into what I think are ninja stars, very, very big ninja stars.

I could run now, but I wouldn't make it far. He's probably much faster and stronger than me, so running away from him would be a pathetic attempt in desperation. I have nothing to do, so I might as well play along with his stupid little game.

"You're not going to kill me. If you were going to, you would have done it a long time ago." I say, slowly bending down and picking up my bat.

"You know, that bat is futile. I could throw my ninja stars at you right now and you'd be dead in a second. I wouldn't even have to move." He gives me a devilish smirk and steps closer, but this time, I don't step back.

"Then do it then. Kill me Halloween. I _dare_ you." He turns his head to the side, like something a confused dog would do. He smiles from ear to ear, showing all his teeth.

"I am going to kill you, Sarah Morford. But not now. You _are _after all my biggest competition right now, so if I kill you off, I could end this thing in a week tops, and I'm just having _way _too much fun here to end this so quickly."

He presses another button on the ninja stars and they automatically start closing up again.

"I only have 16 other people in this arena left to kill Sarah. If I were you, I'd start practicing with that bat. Don't make me regret keeping you alive."

And with that said, he runs off.

**Derek France POV.**

I'm pretty sure that… thing killed Desiree. She fell flat on her face when we all ran, and I was going to help her, I really was, but things just got so… scary, and that thing was running straight towards us, so it was either risk my life for a girl I barely even know, or just look away and run. The last thing I saw before I ran off was that thing digging its claw into her arm.

I don't know what happened to Glenn, but all I can hope is that she ran with the others. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I found out she was out there all by herself. She's an easy target, and ever since the beginning I felt like I needed to protect her, and I've failed.

God, stupid me! I can't do anything right, I swear.

She probably hates me now, for not staying by her side, but that was just so fucking chaotic back there, I didn't know what to do! Oh, and to make matters worse, I have no supplies at all. Nothing! No water, no food, no weapons, no anything! Ugh, this is not good. I'm prolly gonna die soon, and it's going to be a really painful death, just like Desiree's, because karma is an even bigger bitch than my mother.

It's getting really cold right now. I never noticed it could get this cold here. It's prolly like what, 10 degrees right now? Wow, great. I might freeze to death. That is so _awesome._ Just the way I wanted to go. Woho, I'm gonna be a human Popsicle in less than 24 hours, yeah!

No, I can't let that happen. Aside from all jokes, if I don't start a fire soon, I will freeze to death. _Yeah, it's that cold._

But how do you start a fire? Don't you need like wood and a rock or something? I wish I would have paid attention during the Training sessions, they probably mentioned how to do this about a million times. I was prolly too busy staring into Glenn's beautiful hazel eyes. Or maybe I was too busy listening to her soothing laugh, or maybe I was too amazed by how soft and gentle her skin was…

CONCENTARTE DEREK, CONCENTRATE!

You should be thinking about how to build a fire right now, not Glenn's eyes, laugh, skin, etc! If you don't do this, you'll die, and then you really won't be able to see Glenn again.

I feel something suddenly bump into the top of my head as I'm about to bend down to pick up some sticks.

"What the…?"

I look down to the ground and see a square silver box just laying there. I step back a few steps, not knowing what it is or what it could do. I pick up a particularly long stick and slowly poke the silver box with it.

Wait, a sliver box? A silver box, it was floating, it has a tiny parachute tied to the top of it, and it hasn't blown up yet. Isn't that what a sponsor gift looks like?

…

_A SPONSOR GIFT!_

I let out a small laugh before I basically throw myself on top of the gift. I rip it open, not even trying to be careful with it, when the first thing I see inside of it is a tiny box of matches! Yes! Just what I needed! But right below the box of matches is another thing.

A note?

I slowly open it up, having no idea what it could be. Maybe instructions?

"_It's time to get serious Derek, stop playing around. Here-, use this to start a fire. They won't let me give out any information, but let's just say it's going to get very cold, very soon. Please try not to start a forest fire bobo, momma loves you!"_

My mom… wrote me that? I didn't even know you were allowed to send notes to Tributes if you were sponsoring. Wow, I wonder how much that cost.

"Love you too Mom!" I say out loud as I start opening to box of matches.

Okay, so maybe my mom isn't that big of a bitch.

She practically saved my life.

I wipe away a small tear from the corner of my eye and smile.

Alright, enough of that. I have a fire to start.

**The Tributes.**

**D1: **

**-Juanita Alba**

**-Maximillium Rochester**

**D2:**

**-Glenn Elizabeth**

**-Sapphire Amely**

**D3:**

**-Sarah (Smo) Morford**

**D4:**

**-Julietina Fox**

**-Corrosive Tanner**

**D5: **

**-Alexander Pastrana**

**D6:**

**-George Seibert**

**D7:**

**-Ann McDermott**

**-Derek France**

**D8:**

**-Hazel Nguyen**

**D9:**

**-Penelope Starr**

**-Manchester Emilio**

**D10:**

**-Arnaldo Armani**

**-Cookie Hannah**

**D11:**

**-Rosalina DiCaprio**

**D12:**

**-Halloween Meyer**


	12. It is what it is

**A/N- I wrote this whole chapter during a fierce thunderstorm. My lights when out, and hail was coming in through my window. It was amazing, I couldn't have asked for more inspiration for this chapter. This was a very hard chapter to write, and I am extremely proud of myself for finishing it, so reviews are extra appreciated this time.**

**Again, you can sponsor if you want. Look at the last chapter for more info or just PM me.**

**Hugs and Kisses, ForeverAdrian.**

_Day four._

**Manchester Emilio POV.**

"Hold my hand." I whisper to Rosalina as were walking through the forest on a particularly grim day. The sky is no longer pink, it's dark grey, and the sun is no longer shining, not like it ever was, but the comforting feeling of sunlight is no longer there.

She takes a hold of my hand and walks with me slowly. I don't know what's going on today, but it's very cold and windy. I can tell Rosalina is afraid; she was the one that didn't want to stay back there because she had a "bad feeling" or whatever, so we were pretty much forced to start walking around, which I'm thinking is an extremely bad idea right now.

"Where are we going?" She whispers to me as we walk aimlessly around the forest.

"I don't know. You were the one that wanted to leave." She looks at me for a moment, but doesn't say anything. She knows I'm right. If anything, she should be the one guiding us.

We walk for about an hour more, not really knowing where we're going, but just to let off extra energy. This whole time we haven't let go of each other's hands. The sky is so dark right now it could pass as night time, and more and more clouds keep piling on to each other every minute that goes by. It's going to storm soon, there's no doubt about it, and when it does, I want to be underneath something as soon as possible. Too bad these tree's serve us no good. They have no leaves on them to protect us from the rain that's about to come, but then again, how damaging could rain be?

"Ouch! What the hell?" Rosalina suddenly yells.

"What? What happened?" I ask her, panicking.

"Something just hit my neck." She lets go of my hand and starts rubbing her neck.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know… it's like someone threw a small rock at me."

The suddenly, I feel something hit my forehead. I look up at the sky while rubbing my forehead and see nothing. It felt like… ice? But that can't be, cause that would only be one thing… freezing rain.

Torrential rain suddenly starts coming down at us. Ice mixed with freezing water forces us to run forward. We don't know where we're going, but the longer and longer we run, the harder and harder it gets to breathe. The mud is slowly developing a thin sheet of ice, my skin is slowly starting to numb, and my hair feels heavy on my head. I look over at Rosalina, who is running alongside me, and I can see that she's slowing down. Her face looks grim and pink, and her hair is matted and frozen all over the place. If we don't find a place to hide soon, we're as good as dead.

"Ah!" I hear Rosalina scream as I hear her suddenly trip and crash to the ground.

I come to a sudden halt, slipping a little as I do so, and immediately turn around.

I see Rosalina hopelessly entangled in someone's tent. I run to her and help her up. I can see someone trashing around inside of the tent, trying to get out.

"We have to go now! Hurry!" I scream at Rosalina as I see none other than the District 4 Tribute, my biggest enemy during the Training center, crawl out of his tent.

Rosalina crashed into the careers tent. Wow, how wonderful.

"Get her!" I hear the District 4 girl scream at the top of her lungs as I pull Rosalina off _her _tent. Rosalina and I both start running, but the freezing rain puts us in such an extreme disadvantage I know we won't make it far.

I can't feel my skin. It's getting harder and harder to breathe every step I take. Rosalina is trying to keep up, but I know that any second she might drop down and die. Freezing to death was not the way I thought I was going to die, but it is what it is.

"Ah! Manchester!" I hear Rosalina scream behind me as she quickly stumbles to the ground.

I turn around, slipping again, but this time falling. The ground now definitely has a thin layer of ice on it, and so do my hair, skin, and clothes. I never knew ice could be so deadly.

I quickly stand up and see Juanita, Maximillium, and Julietina running towards us, all armed and ready. If we don't move now, they'll kill us immediately.

"You need to stand up!" I scream at Rosalina, but she doesn't move.

"They stabbed me! Something's lodged into my lower back!" She screams as she slowly tries to stand up.

I look up, desperately trying to keep my own body from deteriorating against the ice, when I notice how close the careers are. They're too close now. One of us is going to die. It doesn't matter how hard we try to get away. It's just not worth the fight anymore.

With all my strength, which isn't much, I take off my vest and shirt, and throw them to Rosalina.

"Take my clothes and run. They should keep you warm for a little while longer. Run. Please." She doesn't say anything back; she understands. She pulls herself up, biting her bottom lip as she does it, puts the vest on backwards, and wraps my long sleeved shirt around her neck. She looks at me one last time, a stream of tears slipping from her eyes, and kisses me gently.

"Goodbye Manchester." She whispers to me as she pulls away. "But before I go, take this."

She bites her bottom lip as she quickly pulls out the long knife from her lower back. She hands it to me, it's covered in blood until the very tip, and she kisses me one last time.

I turn around, with my new knife in hand, and face my three opponents. I can hear Rosalina staggering behind me as she runs away, but I know she can't run fast enough to outrun the careers completely, so I need to buy some time.

I start running at full speed towards the three careers. I'm running so fast it feels like the freezing rain is just whizzing right past me. I'm going to use my extreme speed to my advantage, I have too, that's the only thing I've got left, and in about three seconds I'll be within 5 feet away from the careers.

All three of them barely move out of the way as I zoom past them, but that's exactly what I wanted them to do. As Juanita turns around to throw a knife at me, I make a miraculous turn and slash her right in the arm. She screams in pain and drops her knife, giving me just enough time to push her into Julietina, who slips on the layer of ice that's formed on the ground and falls. I run about 10 feet away from them and stop. Maximillium is still shocked from all the damage I've caused in less than 10 seoncds; he doesn't even know what to do. I'm sure as hell nobody has ever seen someone run that fast ever in their life.

I start running again, but this time directly towards Maximillium, who has his sword up and ready. Julietina and Juanita are still hopelessly trying to lift themselves up from the ground, but just keep falling. This is easier than I fucking thought.

I'm about to do one of my quick turns on Maximillium, when I suddenly feel my left foot turn sideways and my knee give out. I let out a small yelp before I fall face first onto the ground. I quickly try to scramble up, but it's no use. Maximillium puts his boot on my back and sends me right back to the ground.

"Thought you were too fast for me, huh, pretty boy?" He lets out a cruel laugh before he starts to lift his sword.

The icy ground feels sharp against my skin. My whole body feels so numb; I don't even know how I'm still alive anyways. I probably had so much energy rushing through my body I didn't realize the intense cold that I was exposed too. But oh well, I'd rather get stabbed right thought the heart than freeze to death.

The last thing I see before he stabs his sword right through my back and into my chest is nothing, which is good, because that means Rosalina escaped.

**Alexander Pastrana POV.**

It's been raining almost the whole day, and it's not like any kind of rain I've ever seen before. Somehow, the Gamemakers have been able to mix the rain with ice, so whatever the rain touches, gradually freezes. I thought it was pretty cool, all up until a drop hit me, then I was done being amazed by it.

We, by a small miracle, only got a small portion of it, because us hiding underneath a tree for an hour was perfectly fine, and these trees have no leaves on them, so it's not like they offer that much protection.

It's over now though, which is good, because we have a new member on board now. I think his name is Arnaldo Armani, the only reason I remember that is because I found out his great-great grandfather used to own a very high end jewelry store before the fall of North America, and he's still apparently a little rich, for a District 10 Tribute. We just randomly found him lying on the ground by a lake, mumbling some words that we really couldn't understand. Ann ripped off a piece of her shirt to wrap around Arnaldo's knee wound, which looks like it's shattered pretty badly, but mostly we just used his clothes to secure the wound. We made him drink some water before the storm started, and now he seems to be opening and closing his eyes every couple of hours. I don't know if he's going to make it for much longer, but he's hanging in there, that's for sure.

A cannon just sounded not too long ago, and I'm almost 100% positive it had something to do with the weather. I'm telling you, I consider us to be one of the luckier Tributes out here; we really haven't had it bad at all, except that random Dinosaur thing we had to run away from the other day, or whatever the word for day is out here. We later found out that that thing must have killed Desiree. I just hope it was quick, my District partner deserved better.

It's so weird having her gone now. I can't really explain the feeling, but once you go into The Hunger Games with someone, whether you like them or not, you have this feeling that you can't quite explain towards them. It's like, once they're dead, you think to yourself, "Wow, the girl that came into the Hunger Games with me, the closest tie that I had to anything back home, is gone. She came in with me, and now she's gone, and I'm not." It's not a good feeling, but it's not a bad one either. If anything, it makes you think.

"I'm so cold." Glenn says; her voice shaking horribly as she says it. All of our teeth are chattering. We're all sitting below a tree while our hair turn into real life icicles, we're all cold and numb, and we're all definitely thinking that death might be closer than we think, but we have to stay positive, I mean, what else are we going to do?

"We all are Glenn, but you don't hear the rest of us complaining, now do you?" Ann growls at Glenn.

"I know. I'm just making a simple statement. Don't have a cow!" Glenn laughs nervously as Ann shoots her a "Shut the fuck up" look.

"Guys." That's the only thing I have to say to calm Ann down. Ann is… different. She has such a short fuse towards basically anything, but she's just so understanding when you try to calm her down, like she seems like the kind of girl that will punch you in the face if you tried to stop her from yelling at someone, but all she does is bite her tongue, sigh, and sit back. She's growing on me, that's for sure, they all are, even George, who barely ever talks. I don't know how I'm going to feel once we start dying off, I actually hope that if we do die, we all die together, like in some natural disaster or mutt attack. These people are just too awesome to lose.

"Look!" George screams suddenly as he points to a giant silver box slowly flying toward us.

"It's a sponsor gift!" Glenn screams with excitement. We all stand up and walk towards the shiny silver box that landed several feet in front of us. Ann picks it up and slowly starts to open it, like the first gift you open during Christmas time. It takes her about a minute before she opens the whole thing, and when she does, I feel tears in my eyes.

Two loaves of bread, bags upon bags of dried fruits, several canteens of water, a whole pack of knives, gloves, scarves, and a small first aid kid with the name "Arnaldo" written on it with what seems like old English letters, kind of what you would find in the renaissance times.

I immediately know who this gift is from. A simple thank you, or should I say a big thank you, from Arnaldo's rich family; the biggest form of gratitude that I have ever seen in The Hunger Games. What this is basically saying is, "Thank you for saving my son."

We all start crying, all of us. Even Ann, who seemed that up until this point the only emotion she had was anger.

We immediately start putting our gloves and scarves on. We all each grab one pack of dried fruit and one canteen of water, which I can see is already filled to the rim. The bread we'll have to ration. Ann takes it upon herself to take care of the knives, and I don't really know if that's such a good thing, but we'll worry about it later.

After everyone is done with their supplies, I walk over to Arnaldo and gently start putting the gloves and scarf on him. He opens his eyes for a brief moment as I'm putting his gloves on, but then they close and he's still. Something he's been doing this whole time.

With Ann's help, we clean his knee wound gently, trying to be careful of the broken bones and constant gushing of blood, and then we slowly wrap a thick bandage around his knee. I remember someone telling me once that if you had a wound involving loss of blood, you should elevate the wound above the heart. We turn him around and slowly place his foot on the lowest branch of the tree we were hiding under, making sure that his knee is higher than his heart, and once we're all done with that, we all sit in a circle, silently, and eat our dried fruit.

This is bittersweet.

**The Tributes.**

**D1: **

**-Juanita Alba**

**-Maximillium Rochester**

**D2:**

**-Glenn Elizabeth**

**-Sapphire Amely**

**D3:**

**-Sarah (Smo) Morford**

**D4:**

**-Julietina Fox**

**-Corrosive Tanner**

**D5: **

**-Alexander Pastrana**

**D6:**

**-George Seibert**

**D7:**

**-Ann McDermott**

**-Derek France**

**D8:**

**-Hazel Nguyen**

**D9:**

**-Penelope Starr**

**D10:**

**-Arnaldo Armani**

**-Cookie Hannah**

**D11:**

**-Rosalina DiCaprio**

**D12:**

**-Halloween Meyer**


	13. What ever has become, of me?

**A/N- I really liked writing this chapter. I don't know why, but I just did.**

**But anyways, review, please?**

**I'll love you forever, and make you a batch of cookies!  
:D**

**Just kidding, I suck at cooking.**

**Hugs, ForeverAdrian.**

_Day Six._

**Penelope Starr POV.**

My District partner is dead. Does that affect me? No. Not in the least.

I'm sure he didn't even know my name.

The ice storm is finally over. We would have died if it wasn't for the small cave we found seconds before the ice storm started.

It was just… there.

Not one drop touched our skins.

The sky is still black though, and it's getting darker and darker as the "day" drags on. It's almost pitched black, you could say. I can only see a small blur of things in front of me. It's scary, to say the least, so we're staying in the cave for awhile or at least until these clouds clear up. I swear I could just extend my arm up in the air and grab a cloud. They just keep accumulating more and more.

Today hasn't been a good day for me. I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm cold, I'm tired, I'm confused, I'm sad, I'm angry, and I'm lonely.

I've been in this arena for almost a week, and every day that goes by I just get more and more miserable.

I can't even think anymore.

Living on plants and cold lake water doesn't really stimulate your mind. It scares me to think that I'm slowly going insane, so I refuse to think that right now.

My excuse?

I'm just extremely exhausted.

"We should go now." Cookie says while munching on a mushroom. We're all hunched down on the cave floor, cold and sick, just waiting for something good to happen to us.

But nothing's happened.

Not even one little sponsor gift.

"Where would we go, Cookie? It's fucking black out there! How are we going to get around?" I scream back at her. I'm tired of her constant persistency in finding Arnaldo. It's sickening to me now.

I want her to leave.

She raises her eyebrow, but says nothing. She just keeps munching on her mushroom. She doesn't even care.

We sit in the darkness, not saying a single word to each other.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" Cookie suddenly starts screaming. She throws the mushroom to the ground and starts stomping on it furiously.

"Get it off of me! Get it off of me!" Cookies voice is ranging with fear. She grabs on to her hair and starts pulling on it. She keeps yanking it down like if she wants to purposely rip her hair off, but then she let's go of her hair and screams at the top of her lungs.

"What's going on?" I yell at Hazel, who is sitting behind Cookie, completely taken over by fear.

"The mushrooms! It must have been the mushrooms!"

Poisonous mushrooms? No, that can't be it. She's not dead. How could it have been the mushrooms? Unless she had some sort of bad reaction to them. That must be it. The mushrooms were purposely made for people to go crazy.

I hope.

Cookie suddenly throws her arms up against the cave walls. She keeps beating them against the sharp, jagged wall, ignoring the new found drops of blood dripping from her arms.

"Cookie! Stop!" I scream at her. I stand up, and I'm about to grab on to her, when she suddenly whips out a knife from her pocket, and is pointing it at her chest.

"Get it off of me!"

I make a life or death decision.

Right when Cookie is about to stab herself in the chest, I throw myself on her, slapping the knife out of her hand, and cutting it in the process, and slam her head against the cave wall, knocking her out cold.

Hazel cups her hands around her mouth and steps back.

"Did you… just kill her?"

I can see her chest rising up and down slowly, which is a huge relief. If I had accidentally killed Cookie, I could never live with myself. Ever. It doesn't matter how much she annoys me or how much I want her to leave, Cookie is still someone I respect enough not to kill.

"You didn't hear a canon." I spit back at Hazel, not knowing what else to say.

I step away from Cookie, and not even looking back at Hazel. I slowly walk out of the cave, lie on the cold ground, blanket myself with a pile of frozen leaves, and close my eyes.

This is all too much.

Alright, I guess it is appropriate to call me insane right about now, but I don't care. I'm just so fucking exhausted I can't even think.

And I don't usually even cuss this much either.

This whole thing is getting to me. I'm starting to care less and less about my life and the life of my alliance members each day that goes on.

Maybe they're not good for me. Maybe it's _them_ who are virtually turning me insane. I mean, I don't really even like them anymore. Not after this, no. I can't be with them for much longer.

"Over here. I'm positive the screams came from around here." I hear, who I'm pretty sure is Julietina, say to someone. I hear various footsteps walking towards my direction, and if it's Julietina's voice I hear, then it must be the career pack.

I have to hold every force I have inside of me not to scream my brains out. I have to go back into the cave and warn Hazel. I can't do anything about Cookie; she's passed out and of no help. I wish I could just pick her up and take her with me, but I just don't have the strength to do that.

I'm sorry.

I slowly remove all the leaves from my body and start crawling towards the cave. It's virtually impossible to see in front of me now, let alone crawl, but the small shoe sized dents I left behind guide me easily back into the cave.

I can still hear them in the distance, they're getting closer.

Once I'm absolutely positive that I'm inside the cave, I stand up on my two feet and whisper Hazel's name.

"Hazel." It's barely audible.

They're getting closer.

"Hazel." I say it a little bit louder.

Still nothing.

"Hazel, please." I say it a little too loud for my own safety, but this time, I get a response.

"Penelope, hide." The whisper, so barely audible, is coming from where I left Cookie unconscious.

_Hide?_

I don't question her.

I get on all fours again, and start crawling towards the direction of her voice.

"I'm coming Hazel. I'm coming." My voice shakes; I can barely even hear myself.

I stretch my arm out and suddenly feel the touch of Hazel's leg. She lets out a small scream, but as soon as I slap her on the leg, as a signal to be quiet, she knows it's me.

"The careers are coming." I whisper to Hazel, accommodating myself between her and Cookies still unconscious body. "They won't be able to see is if where absolutely quiet."

Hazel suddenly grabs on to my arm and I can feel that she's shaking horribly.

"There's… something… in here." Her voice is a mixture of a whisper and a small cry.

I feel my chest hollow. I'm taken over by fear even more. I don't want to know what she saw, but I have to know.

"What… did you see?"

I can hear her breathing.

No answer.

"Don't let go of my hand." She says.

"We have to be absolutely quiet."

"In here you guys, I'm positive I heard the screams from here!" I hear one of the career girls yell as they start walking into the cave.

It's Julietina again.

"So tell my _why _were walking towards a scream? Doesn't seem too smart to me."

Corrosive.

"I see nothing. Anyone have flashlight?"

Juanita.

"Quit your bitchin. We're going to get to the bottom of this weather you guys like it or not."

Maximillium.

"Don't leave me behind!"

Sapphire.

They're all here.

The cave is too wide for them to find us immediately, but it's not that long. Eventually they'll reach the end and turn around and find us, there's no way we can get out of here now. I just hope to God they can't see us.

I can hear Hazel's teeth chattering.

She saw something, while I was having my emotional breakdown out there, and whatever she saw, must have scared her down to the bones.

"They're being too loud." She whispers to me.

"Hazel." I press my lips against her ear. "Please tell me that whatever you saw, won't find us."

"Don't make a sound. Don't even breathe."

"Hey guys! Did you see that?" Julietina screams, not even _trying _to talk in a low voice.

"See what?" Maximillium growls.

"It might have been a Tribute! I don't know, but whoever it was, they're in pretty bad shape." She says back casually.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are." Maximillium taunts the air, laughing as he does it.

That's when I hear the inhuman growl.

It's nothing like I've ever heard before. The closest I can compare it to is the sound that a dinosaur would make, a velociraptor specifically.

"What was that?" I hear Sapphire scream in fear as the inhuman growl is joined by a swift crawling noise.

"I told you I saw something!" Julietina shouts back.

Hazel presses onto my hand.

"We need to get out of here!" Corrosive yells. I can hear them scurrying around the cave, but by this time, it's too dark to even know where the entrance is.

They're doomed.

The inhuman growl turns into a shrill scream and I suddenly hear Juanita scream followed by a loud thumping noise.

"Run!" Julietina screams, but it's too late. There's no way you can get out of this cave now.

They're all screaming now, and the shrill screams keep multiplying every second.

"What _are_ they?" Julietina screams.

I hear a sickening ripping noise, quickly followed by Sapphires screams.

They must have got him, there's no way all of them are going to get out of here alive.

I hear every noise in the book. Pounding noises, gushing noises, ripping noises, screams, growls, shrills.

Hazel is squeezing my hand so tight I can't really feel it anymore.

All we have to do is be quiet.

I hear a faint panting noise quickly shoot by me. One of them must have escaped, but I have no idea who. When I say I can't even see my body, I mean it.

"Why don't you die?" Sapphire yells out in a way I never thought he could. I hear a ripping and a shredding noise, followed by another panting and crying noise fly across me.

Another one escaped.

"Guys!" Julietina screams.

Another panting noise.

There's only three left.

"Guys!" She screams again.

"Oh, fuck it!" I hear the high pitched noise of a knife cutting through something thick and then, lastly, one final panting noise.

That must have been Julietina.

So who's left?

"Someone, please."

Corrosive.

"Kill me!"

Am I missing someone?

Slurping, shredding, growling.

"Kill me someone! Oh God!"

The strong metallic stench of blood is creeping up my nose. Followed by a slurping, shredding, and growling noise once again.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Corrosive screams one last time before a cannon sounds and the only noise you can hear in the cave are the monsters feasting on his flesh.

When I realize that I truly envy Corrosive is when I realize that I have positively gone insane.

**Arnaldo Armani POV.**

My eyes suddenly fly open like someone who had just woken up from a night terror.

Confusion is the first thing that sets in.

Where am I? Why can't I see anything? Am I blind?

_Am I dead?_

"He's awake." I hear someone say in the darkness.

"How do you know?" Someone replies back.

"The moonlight is shining right on his face."

I look up at the sky and realize that the moonlight is indeed shining on me, but it looks like its just shining on me though, everything else is covered in darkness.

"It's about time." I hear someone growl.

"Arnaldo?"

I tilt my eyes upward, trying to see whoever is talking to me. I feel too stiff and too comfortable to move right now, and whoever I'm with obviously doesn't think I'm a threat, or I would have been dead by now, but I still can't see their face. It's way too dark.

"He might be in a complete state of shock right now, let's just leave him alone for now." It's a man's voice, well, not really a man's voice, but a boys voice. I don't recognize it, but it doesn't sound threatening in the least.

Yeah, he's right. I _am _in a completely state of shock right now, but he's making me sound like I'm crazy and unpredictable.

Maybe I am, I wouldn't know.

Did these people save my life?

They don't say anything else, which is okay, because I need time to think.

How long had I been asleep, or passed out? The last thing I remember is being attacked by that giant mutant fish and my knee breaking, but other than that, I'm completely clueless.

These people must have rescued me, but why they kept me alive is completely beyond me. Killing me would just be one step closer to going home. Hell, if I was them and they were me, I would have killed them the second I found them.

"The anthem!"

The dark sky suddenly lights up with the Capitol seal. I didn't realize that the only reason that the only reason the sky was so dark was because there is an extreme amount of clouds in the sky. There's probably going to be a storm soon, or maybe there already was. That would explain why I suddenly have gloves and a scarf on.

Once the anthem is over, I wait for them to show a face in the sky. I don't look though, because I no longer have respect for the dead. That tends to happen after you're in an arena with 23 other people out trying to kill you, or in my case, hideous mutations trying to kill you.

"No way!" I hear someone yell in shock. I swear I keep hearing more and more voices.

"How did that happen?" Another one says.

"It must have been something big."

"Yeah, no shit."

"He could have been the victor. He was certainly good enough."

"Apparently not."

I hear so many different voices each time, I wonder if I'm hallucinating. All I want to know is who died. It must have been a career, or that one Tribute from 12 who got a 12 in Training. That would explain the immense shock within the group.

"Who was it?" I say in a very hoarse voice.

They don't say anything for a moment. The sound of my voice must be foreign to them; I actually don't think I've ever even spoken to them ever in my life.

"Corrosive Tanner." One of them says. "The District four boy."

"Why is that so shocking?" I say, barely getting the words out.

"He was one of the fastest and strongest people in this arena."

A moment of silence for the fastest and strongest boy in this arena.

"I just want to know what the hell happened." One of them whispers.

"I don't." Something I've noticed is that this particular voice keeps having a really shitty attitude towards another voice, like they don't even try to hide it. Hm, I wonder who it is.

Oh, I'd really like to know who I'm _with, _too. I'm being taken care of complete strangers in the dark. This is so dangerous on so many levels, but I guess I can't complain too much, after all, I'm not dead.

"Well, we better get to sleep. It won't stay dark forever… hopefully. So we better appreciate it while we can."

The light covering my face disappears, and now we're really covered in darkness.

"I'll stay up, just in case. We'll be taking rounds."

I hear them scuffle and groan until everything is silent.

I've come to realize that these people have saved my life, and I _still_ don't feel anything towards them.

But I guess that's a good thing, because once I'm well enough to kill them, I won't feel so bad.

**Julietina Foxx POV.**

I'm running through the darkness with one thing in mind: Survival.

Pain keeps shooting through my right leg and I can feel more and more blood dripping down to my foot. I don't know what the fuck those things were, but they got me good. One of them definitely bit a chunk of flesh right off my leg. And I'm positive I have a deep cut on my cheek too.

Fucking muttations.

I don't know where anybody is. I ran out of that cave the second I knew my alliance had abandoned me, but I thought I was the only one there. If I would have known Corrosive was still in there I would have stayed and tried to fight those things off until we could have both escaped, but let's be real, I could have never done that. I couldn't even see an inch in front of me.

Actually, I still can't. It's still completely dark out here, and the only reason I'm still on my two feet is because I'm running with my arms sticking out in front of me. Whenever I feel a tree, I turn the other way.

I left my bow and arrow in the cave. We all brought our weapons with us, which was an extremely bad idea. I'm sure all of us must have left them behind, but who cares anyways. A bow and arrow, an axe, and a knife won't do much good when you're as good as blind.

Our alliance is over. There's no way in hell I'm going back to Maximillium and Juanita now. Those scum, they just left Corrosive and I in that cave to die, and Sapphire, he was never a career to begin with.

Fuck 'em.

If anything, parting with these bastards will be the best thing that's happened to me so far.

**The Tributes.**

**D1: **

**-Juanita Alba**

**-Maximillium Rochester**

**D2:**

**-Glenn Elizabeth**

**-Sapphire Amely**

**D3:**

**-Sarah (Smo) Morford**

**D4:**

**-Julietina Fox**

**D5: **

**-Alexander Pastrana**

**D6:**

**-George Seibert**

**D7:**

**-Ann McDermott**

**-Derek France**

**D8:**

**-Hazel Nguyen**

**D9:**

**-Penelope Starr**

**D10:**

**-Arnaldo Armani**

**-Cookie Hannah**

**D11:**

**-Rosalina DiCaprio**

**D12:**

**-Halloween Meyer**


	14. I don't even know who you are anymore

**A/N- SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE!**

**School has been so incredibly busy that I just have virtually no time to write, but I promise you this, I am **_**not **_**the type of person to dump off a story like this, especially when it gets this good. And now that I'm back up with the rhythm, I think I'll be able to update a little faster now.**

**So, please review, and again, I'm very sorry.**

**Lots of love, ForeverAdrian. **

**Hazel Nguyen POV.**

I open my eyes, and I swear I see heaven.

But as I stare deeper and deeper into the abyss, I realize it's just a couple rays of sunlight creeping into the cave.

"Close enough." I mumble to myself as I lift myself off of Penelope's body. I must have fallen asleep literally right on top of her last night. I'm surprised she didn't wake me up or push me off. She's a good friend, after everything that happened last night, I'm surprised she even stayed by my side. That just shows how amazing her character is.

My thoughts are immediately shut off by a loud moaning on my right side.

I gasp and quickly turn my head to the right. In the little sunlight that's shining inside the cave, I can see what is left of a body surrounded by a puddle of blood. It keeps convulsing up and down and whoever that is keeps muttering these words that are quickly drowned by the gargling of blood.

I stop breathing and crawl back, trying to not look at the horror that is upon me. But just as I do, my foot pushes a pile of rocks that I must have not noticed, and the sudden noise of the rocks rolling around the rough cave floor must have alarmed the body.

The boy turns his head towards me, and I immediately realize its Sapphire. His almost clear blonde hair is now covered by dark blood, and his crystal blue eyes now only reflect pain instead of beauty and innocence. He has a very noticeable gash on his neck, as if something with very long nails slashed right through his neck, but not killing him in the process. His stomach is ripped open, and one very long organ his hanging off of his side.

I cover my mouth and begin to cry, unable to help myself. He opens his mouth, and his once pearly white teeth are now coated with crimson red. He mutters something to me, but the only thing I can hear is the gargling in his throat.

I can't handle this by myself anymore. I grab Penelope's arm and start shaking it.

"Penelope please wake up, Sapphire is dying!" I say to her, crying while I say it.

But all she does is grunt and turn to her side.

"Hee-lp me-" Sapphire moans.

I let out a small scream and let go of Penelope's hand.

"How can I help you?" I yell over at him, tears streaming down my face.

He opens his mouth, but once he does, he makes a face which only exhibits that he's in pain.

"Don't try to talk, okay? I'll find a way to help you."

Trembling, I slowly start crawling over to him. The closer and close I get to him, the stronger the stench of blood becomes. There's blood absolutely _everywhere. _On the walls, on the floor, on my hands, on my knees. Puddles here, puddles there, it's inevitable.

As I'm crawling towards him, I suddenly feel something soft but firm under the palm of my hand. I stop right where I am, realizing that whatever I just touched is not a rock or any type of plant. I slowly lift my hand up, and right underneath the palm of my hand is a blood covered ear.

It takes everything I have inside of me not to vomit everywhere. I just quickly close my eyes and crawl faster towards Sapphire. Once I feel the warm wetness on my fingertips that can only be blood, I realize that I've gotten too close for comfort.

I open my eyes and brace for the worse. Blood, so much blood. I've never seen so much blood around a human being that was still alive, if you can even consider him alive still.

My hands are lying on a puddle of blood, surrounded by Sapphires mutilated body. I shakily lift up my hand, and the blood slowly starts dripping down my hand in little drops back into the puddle, making little "_plop" _sounds as they do.

"Kill m-e." He barely manages. But I hear him, I hear him very clearly.

I stare at him for a moment, not even being able to comprehend what he just said. How can I kill a human being that has done nothing to me? I hadn't even said one word to him until this, so how do I, my family, _his family, _expect me to kill a kid I don't even know?

"I-, I can't." I start crawling back, but he suddenly grabs my arm with such force I let out a small breath.

"You, you-you can-t leave m-e, li-like this." The more he talks, the more blood pours out of his mouth. I want to cry, just like he's doing right now. But I can't.

Once you've been through so much, you can't cry anymore.

I see his eyes move towards something by the edge of my feet. I follow his eyes, and I see something I hadn't seen before.

A small pickaxe.

I stare at it for a moment, feeling scared and confused. If I let this boy die like this, I know I could never live with myself, but if I do kill him, I couldn't live with myself either. Even though, I will admit, I'll have the satisfaction of knowing that I ended this poor boys suffering.

I slowly grab the pickaxe, and time suddenly goes in slow motion.

I slowly sit on top of him, his tears slowly roll down his cheeks, I slowly lift the pickaxe up, and he clearly whispers _"I'm sorry Mom._

And then he quickly dies.

**Derek France POV.**

The sound of the cannon firing suddenly shocks me enough to wake up. I haven't seen a single soul in days, but the cannon firing is just a reminder to me that the Games are still going on, weather I realize it or not. I don't even feel like I'm in The Hunger Games anymore, I just feel like someone just threw me into the wilderness and forgot to pick me back up. When I tell you I haven't heard or seen anything than myself in days, it's the truth.

The fire I started wasn't like a regular fire. It kind of created a… shield you could say, around me when the ice storm hit. The ice pellets immediately melted when it came within 5 feet of the fire, so all I got was a dump load of warm water poured on me instead of the everlasting ice storm.

I really want to find Glenn, that's pretty much going to be my priority from now. I have no idea where she could be right now, but I truly hope she's safe. She should be with Ann, George, and Alexander, so I know for a fact they'll keep her safe. I know they can't really stand her, but I don't think they're the kind of people to back stab someone like that. Especially a girl like Glenn, who's only guilty of being a little annoying, which I find completely adorable by the way.

"Just don't fucking talk to me!" I suddenly hear someone scream from behind me. I don't even look back; I just quickly duck behind a tree and pray that's it's no one that I have to worry about.

I press my back hard against the bark, and turn my head just slightly to see who could possibly be behind me. And to just my wonderful luck, it's none other than Maximillium and Juanita.

Maximillium is fuming, and he's storming several feet in front of Juanita, it even looks like it's hard for her to catch up. They won't pass me; they're going more diagonally, so I'm not moving from this spot until they're gone.

"You have no idea how much you fucked up." He continues, even though Juanita isn't talking. "I should just kill you right now!" He stops right on his tracks and turns around. Juanita steps back, looking frightful at first, but once Maximillium starts charging at her, she quickly pulls out a knife from the back of her pants. Maximillium suddenly stops and steps back, looking both surprised and confused.

"You had a weapon all this time, eh? I figured you'd be the type to play dirty."

She doesn't say anything back. She just stares at him intently, clutching on to her knife with an obvious purpose.

"Kill me, Juanita. I want you to see you pierce that knife straight through my heart." He pats his heart tauntingly, and when Juanita does nothing, he starts laughing.

"See you around Juanita, if you're lucky." And with that, he takes off.

Juanita remains standing there, I don't think she's realized that I'm here, but I'm not going to reveal myself. It doesn't matter if she's broken up with her alliance, she's still a career. She's the Pit Bull of the dog world, the Lion of the savannah. Unpredictable, and dangerous.

Once a career, always a career.

After an agonizing hour, she leaves. She had just been standing there, looking into the distance. There's really no explanation.

I sit down. I don't feel like I have a point in the Games if I don't do anything, I feel like I should at least cause _some _drama or something, but that's just not me. I don't know how to be mean to someone that hasn't done anything to me, so why should I even try?

And that's when it hits me.

_Literally._

I feel a sudden surge of pain in the back of my head, and before I know it I'm thrown onto my chest and someone is repeatedly punching my back. I quickly throw myself over, knocking the person on my back off of me. I quickly get back on my two feet, and finally get a look at the culprit.

Oh, what a surprise. It's Julietina Foxx.

This has been my lucky day! Careers must _love _me!

She tries to stand back up and charge towards me, but instead she wobbles and falls back down.

"If you're going to try to kill me, at least make sure you have a weapon and uh.." I look over at her knee injury which is bleeding profoundly, "a Band-Aid wouldn't hurt ya either."

"Shut the fuck up! I had a lot more energy when I jumped on you, so don't think I'm weak because of a little scratch!" She snarls, and tries to stand back up again, but this time she really does it. She falls back down and falls to her side, unable to stand up again.

She's losing a lot of blood, and if I just leave her here she'll die, but, is saving her life the right thing to do? This is The Hunger Games though; doesn't killing one opponent just guarantee my fame and fortune?

Woah, too deep of a thought here.

Back to Derek mode.

"Just because I feel sorry for you." I mumble under my breath.

I bend down and grab her arms, which are surprisingly smaller than they look, and pull her up to her own two feet. She looks at me confusedly, but doesn't decline my help. I put my arm around her waist, and one of her arms around my shoulder, grabbing a hold of it with my hand. And with this, we start walking.

"Why are you doing this?" She asks in somewhat of a rude way.

"Because," I say, "I actually have a heart, unlike most of the people in here."

"That's not going to get you very far you know." She says back.

"I know…" I pause, "But if I die, at least I know I died doing a good thing."

"What if I just kill you right now? Then all of this wasn't worth it."

Silence, we keep walking.

"Will you just shut up and let it be?" I spit back at her, suddenly extremely annoyed at her stupid questions.

She growls under her breath, but falls silent. I know she knows that if I would have left her back there she would have died, so she better appreciate all I'm doing right now. Cause walking around with a wounded career in the middle of a frozen forest isn't the easiest thing to do right now.

Only me.

**Cookie Hannah POV.**

"Why is there blood on your hands Hazel?" I barely hear Penelope shout as I open my eyes. Everything is blurry for a second, and my head is pounding like a mother fucker, but then I start focusing more, and before I know it I see Hazel covered in blood and Penelope towering over her, looking crazed and angry.

"I asked you a question." She says again, very, very sternly.

Hazel looks terrified. Her hands are covered in blood, and if my eyes aren't fooling me, which I know they aren't, I'm pretty sure Sapphire is laying under her. Dead, deader than anyone I have ever seen.

Did Hazel just kill Sapphire?

"He was dying!" She shouts desperately. "I had to kill him, he begged me too!"

"And after all you've done, you expect me to believe that?"

"Yes! Why can't you believe me? You know I would never do a thing like this to someone on purpose!"

Penelope gives Hazel a cold, hard stare.

"No, Hazel. I don't know what to believe. _I don't even know who you are." _She says that last sentence with disgust, it's like she's gone crazy! And I was supposed to be the crazy one of the group!

"Guys." I say, coming so suddenly that Penelope doesn't hear me the first time.

"Penelope." I say more specifically this time.

She turns her head only half way, her eye brows raised and her eyes full of rage.

"Cookie. You're awake." She says it in a way that makes it seem like she's not too happy to see that I'm awake. Hmm, I wonder why that is?

"What's going on here?" I slowly stand up, feeling a little wobbly and fighting the immense pain in my head.

"Hazel killed this boy." She says matter-of-factly.

"No I didn't!" Hazel screams in her defense, tears starting to pour out of her skinny eyes.

"I woke up and she was just sitting on top of him, hands covered in blood and determination on her face."

I don't know what to believe. I don't remember anything other than walking into this cave, anything after that is completely blank. It's like if I was in a coma this whole time and I didn't even know it.

"Why does that bother you so much? Isn't the point of this Game to kill to _not _be killed?" I say to Penelope, trying to cool down the situation. Penelope's mental stability is fucked up right now, and Hazel has been acting very sketchy and quiet lately, so I don't know who to listen to or to believe at this point.

"What if we're next?" She says so normally that it suddenly gives me chills. What has happened to this girl?

"Sit down Penelope." I order her, looking at her straight in the eye.

"You don't tell me what to do you psychotic bitch! You can't even last a whole day without passing out. You're weak, you're worthless." And with that, I've had it.

I march right over to her. She tries to step back suddenly, but I grab on to her shoulders quickly so she can't get away, and within a second, I slap her so hard her granddaughter will see stars. She falls to the ground right on her ass, and looks at my dizzily.

"W-ha" She can't even speak that's how hard I slapped her. I'm telling ya, I'm not to be messed with!

"Hazel, stand up." Right when I say it, Hazel is up in a second.

"We're leaving. Do not by any means talk to Penelope at all, not now, or ever. Understood? Oh, and by the way, you better tell me what happened when we first walked into the cave. I can sleep for a hell of a long time, but not for that long."

She nods her head.

"Good." I put my hands on my hips and turns around to face Penelope, who is still sitting on the ground caressing her red cheek.

"And you, missy, will not talk to Hazel either. You're being a crazy bitch for God knows what reason and the least you deserve is a hard slap to wake you up from this crazy trance you have going on. Understood?"

She barely nods her head before she starts crying.

"Stop whining. Get up." I look over at Hazel. "We don't have any supplies here do we?"

She shakes your head.

"Great, no progress at all." I look at the dead body for a second. Yeah, there's no way Hazel could have done that much damage.

There's something I'm missing, but I'll get to that later. Right now, I gotta get these two psychos outta here.

"Alright ladies, let's hit the road!"

**The Tributes.**

**D1: **

**Juanita Alba**

**Maximillium Rochester**

**D2:**

**Glenn Elizabeth**

**D3:**

**Sarah (Smo) Morford**

**D4:**

**Julietina Fox**

**D5: **

**Alexander Pastrana**

**D6:**

**George Seibert**

**D7:**

**Ann McDermott**

**Derek France**

**D8:**

**Hazel Nguyen**

**D9:**

**Penelope Starr**

**D10:**

**Arnaldo Armani**

**Cookie Hannah**

**D11:**

**Rosalina DiCaprio**

**D12:**

**Halloween Meyer**


	15. Betrayal at it's best

**Hope you guys had an awesome Christmas/Winter break! I know I did.**

**Sorry this took so long, but I've been very busy all of a sudden. **

**I finally got a job (whoop whoop!) and School is killing me, so I apologize.**

**But like I said, I'll never give up on this!**

**So let's keep the ball rolling.**

**Love, ForeverAdrian.**

**Sarah Morford POV.**

I once read a quote about love that was such an absolute lie I wanted to grab the author by the neck and break all of their bones, one by one.

"Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrong doing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things."-

1 Corinthians 13: 4-7.

That was the quote, and if anybody knew me in the slightest way, they would know that I would never cave in to any of this bullshit talk about love. But there was one time, just one time, that I thought this quote to be true.

Lewis Mitchell. The love of my 14 year old soul. He was my everything. He was the air I breathed, he was the glimmer in my eye, he was the dance in my soul. He had never dared to hurt me, he had never dared to make me cry. When I hurt I looked him in the eyes and everything was alright again, and in that exact moment in time I thought of that quote to be true.

I never knew of a life without him.

Until that one June afternoon.

I knew something wasn't right by the way he kissed me goodbye after school. It wasn't a goodbye kiss, no, no, it was more of a sadden kiss, the kind of kiss someone gives you when they don't really want to kiss you, or when they're rushed and just want to go. The way his bottom lip trembled, he had never done that before.

In the morning, I knew.

In Spanish class, I knew.

At lunch, I knew.

Walking with my friends, I knew.

Looking outside the window, looking at the blue skies, I knew.

He was going to break up with me.

I had all day to prepare. I had all day to tell myself that I could live without a boy who had been my lover for 3 years. I had all day to tell myself that I could start hanging out with my friends again, I had all day to tell myself that I'd be okay, that I'd be free.

But when class was over, and I got in his car, and he drove me home, and when he looked at me in the eyes and I tear slid down his cheek my mind deteriorated.

I started crying, but my face remained still.

No words were said.

He wiped away the tears from my cheeks, whispered something like "I'm sorry" and I got out of the car, went inside my house, went upstairs, laid in bed, and cried myself to sleep.

And the next day, I got reaped.

My mom made me cookies that day, and my mom is an evil old witch.

That just goes to show you how devastated I was that day.

It's funny, two weeks in the arena and this is the first time I've thought about Lew.

I wonder if he thinks of me.

He has to, he only has to watch me fight to the death with other kids until I win or… they kill me.

I've been thinking a lot about what Halloween said to me. I know he won't kill me until the end. If he said he, he meant it. And I know I'm not strong enough to fight him, it doesn't matter how much I train, how much I try, Halloween is going to have me beat.

So why am I even trying? Why am I even making an attempt at practicing my fighting skills if I know I'm already going to get killed?

I don't have an answer.

"Hey! You, over there!" I suddenly hear a croaky voice shout from behind me.

I turn around and, in the distance, I see who I think is Julietina Fox being carried by Daniel, or maybe Donnie. I can't really remember his name.

I stand up and put my hand over my eyes, the sun being strangely bright today. I can feel the little sheet of ice melting beneath my feet with every step I take. It's not that it's warm, because it's really not, it's probably like 40 degrees, but the sun is just so bright it's hard to see.

"Yeah?" I shout back at them, wondering what the hell the District 4 girl is doing without her allies.

"We need your help!" He shouts, walking closer.

I notice immediately that Julietina's leg is bleeding profoundly. She seems distant; she looks up at me for a moment, scrunches up her eye brows, and flops her head back down.

"Put her down. I've got some things that could help her with her leg! Stay there!" I shout at him. He looks exhausted, if he carries her anymore, I'm afraid he'll die before she does.

I run towards my pile of supplies and dig for anything that could help with her leg. A couple of bandages, hydrogen peroxide, a couple of wipes, and medical tape should do the trick.

I walk towards Julietinas still body and dab the bandages on the hydrogen peroxide. Immediately after I wipe the bandages on her wound she screams. Her wound bubbles up into a mixture of yellow puss and foam, but I this is normal. My mom would always put hydrogen peroxide on my cuts when I was little.

Burns like hell, but it works so well.

"What the _fuck _are you doing?" Julietina screams as I'm wiping of the puss off her wound.

"Fixing your cut! Just shut up and be quiet." I say to her, almost done wrapping the first roll of medical tape around her leg.

The second I'm done wrapping the medical tape on her leg, she pulls her leg back and looks at me straight in the eye.

"Thanks, but this is where it ends."

And right when she says that, her foot comes down on my face and hits me right on my nose. As my head goes back I hear a crack and a pool of blood squirt out of my nose.

"Julietina! What did you do?" I hear the boy scream.

My body falls to the side and my eyes close, the pain too intense in my nose to concentrate on anything else.

"Help me up. Let's get the fuck out of here."

I hear the boy protest, and maybe, just maybe, they might stay and help me, but no, they've left, and now I'm lying on the wet mud, trying not to let too much blood seep out of my nose.

And once again, I'm left.

**Arnaldo Armani POV.**

I have to leave them. I have to leave them soon. I have to leave them now.

My knee is healed enough that I can walk on my own, but what's the guarantee that they won't try to kill me once I try to leave?

It's unlikely, and the only one who I'm actually afraid of is Ann, but I know that if my bark is worse than my bite, I'll be fine.

I need to get some supplies before I leave though. But how can I get away with leaving and stealing some supplies while I'm at it?

Glenn suddenly walks in front of me and bends down to get some berries.

And I know what I have to do.

I quickly grab a knife that I've been hiding in the back of my pants with one hand, and with my other hand I quickly grab the back of Glenn's hair and pull her towards me. She screams as I wrap my arm against her chest and press my knife against her throat.

The others look at me with total shock and I can't say I'm surprised. I have been acting like an angel this whole time.

"What are you doing?" Ann asks with certain gravity in her voice that automatically tells me that she could be thinking about killing me any second.

"I want to leave. Give me three bottles of water, all your food rations, and your medical kit."

A drop of sweat hits my eye brow.

"Or she dies."

Glenn is at a point where I don't think anymore tears can fall out of her eyes. If they don't give me everything I've asked for, I will kill her. I don't want too, of course, but I will. And I have a feeling she won't be missed much either.

"If you wanted to leave," Alexander says as he's picking up the medical kit, "You could have just told us."

"Better to be safe than sorry." I say with a smirk. "Oh, and put all my things in that box over there."

There's a huge brown box that I hadn't really noticed before with a couple of unopened loafs of bread inside. I wonder where they got that from.

They do as I say, and eventually, all of my supplies are in that box. Now all I have to do is… get it.

"Kick it to me." I demand them.

Alexander kicks it maybe a little too hard, and since the ground is wet, it slides right to me.

I immediately push Glenn off me, slicing her neck a little as I do it. While they're busy helping Glenn up, I grab my box and book it.

My knee hurts like a bitch as I run farther and farther away from them, but it's not even close to the pain I felt when that mutant fish attacked me, so I guess I can manage for awhile. I'm going to have to stop eventually though, but I have to distance myself away from them as much as possible.

Distancing myself from people, that's something I'm good at.

I finally come to a steady walk. I see a nice sized bank to the left of me, all frozen over. I could cross it, see what's on the other side, but after that whole incident with the fish, I'd rather not take my chances.

I set my things down by a particularly big dead oak tree and make a fire, one of the few things I'm good at doing.

I pull my things closer to me and examine them. Nothing seems to be poisoned or messed with, but I do notice something way out of the norm. The medicine kit, for some reason, has my name on it.

I'm confused at first, baffled. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. They saved me, and the only way they could have saved me was if someone sent them a specially equipped medicine kit to tend my wounds. My sponsors must be disappointed, they would have probably wanted me to stay with them, but it's too late now. I'm here and they're there and there is no turning back now.

**Glenn Elizabeth POV.**

We helped him and he left.

We helped him and he left.

We helped him and he left.

I can't believe that just happened. He almost _killed _me. _Killed. _Just thinking about it makes my stomach flip. In a second, I could have been dead and that would be that. A second, that's all it would have taken him to slit my throat.

I can't stop myself from sobbing. Alexander and George are trying to comfort me, but it's of no use. Ann's not even looking in my direction, it's like she doesn't even care if I was just about to be killed. I know that if Derek was here, he would have helped me. I hope he's okay, wherever he is. I don't know what I would do with myself if anything happened to him.

"Stop crying Glenn, its over. He didn't kill you. You're alive and you're here, safe and sound." Ann turns her head towards me, but doesn't look at me. I'm annoying her, I know this, but I just can't help it. I almost got _killed!_

"Give her a break Ann. You would be in the same state of shock she's in if the same thing happened to you." Alexander snarls at her.

"Well call me crazy, but if Glenn doesn't shut the fuck up, people will hear her, and that puts us in immediate danger!" Ann screams at Alexander.

"Oh please, Ann. Who's going to get us now? More than half of the careers are dead, and the rest of everyone out there doesn't even give a fuck, because if they did, we would be dead by now and the Games would have ended a week ago!"

"You don't understand." Ann spits back at Alexander. "Do you honestly think any of the four of us can take the three Careers that are left?"

Alexander stands there for a moment, trying to think of something good to say back, but we all know the truth's of Ann's question.

It's a rhetorical question, because all four of us know that we couldn't take the Careers even if we tried, especially with the lack of equipment we have now.

"Well you can't go on just yelling at people, Ann." Alexander says to Ann, a little more calmly this time. "We have to work together. We're a team, Ann."

She says nothing, but as she walks away, I swear I can hear her say not for long.

**Cookie Hanna POV.**

Shit happens, correct?

I got hit in the head, and now I'm making a little more sense. Penelope gets a little scared, she loses her mind. It's like a scale that will never be balanced.

We've been eating the same exact thing for hours now. I don't know much more I can handle of these tasteless berries. I told Hazel to find us food, but I guess she didn't worry about the taste aspect.

Speaking of Hazel, I have to keep Penelope and Hazel as far away from each other as I possibly can. Penelope has her little outburst here and there, but nothing where I have to intervene. She's not really _crazy, _she's just acting so strange towards Hazel. Yeah, she's being a bitch to me too, but it's not anywhere close to the way she's treating Hazel. Poor Hazel, she hasn't really spoken since we've left the cave. She's afraid too, hell, I'd be afraid too if I had to deal with Penelope right now, but she has to stick up for herself soon enough. I'm all for sticking up for my friends, but I can't do it for long.

"Hazel didn't kill him." I say to Penelope.

We're walking to some random location. We don't know, we just want to get as far away from that cave as possible. I still want to find Arnaldo, and kill him, but I guess I'll have to do that some other time; I've got my own issues to worry about right now. And besides, he's not dead yet, and knowing Arnaldo, he won't be for awhile.

"Yes she did." Penelope replies solemnly. "I saw it with my own eyes."

"You mean you actually saw her stab him?" I find a lot of doubt in her theory, because it's fucking common sense to know that Hazel can't even kill a fly. It's like knowing what 2 plus 2 is. Hazel just doesn't go around killing people.

"No, but she's been acting weird lately anyways." She looks away. "You should know."

"What?" I ask, but right before she can respond, I hear Hazel gasp.

"Look!" She whispers. Over in the distance, about 3 miles away, you can see a steady stream of smoke coming from somewhere.

"What is it?" Penelope asks, putting her fingers on her lips and squinting her eyes.

"I don't know." I say. "But we're going to find out."

"What?" Hazel says frightened.

"What? You mean to tell me you don't wanna find out what that is?" I ask her, half sarcastically.

"Not really." She whimpers quietly.

"Well, sorry for your luck. We're going to find out what, or _who _that is, wheatear you like it or not."

"But _why?"_ Hazel whines.

"No offence Hazel, but if it's a person, I'm going to kill them, I kind of want to go home, and if it's just a fire, then I'm going to warm myself up, because it's been fucking freezing since we've gotten here. Call me crazy, but I like feeling my toes once in awhile."

She doesn't respond.

We begin to walk towards the smoke. This is probably the stupidest thing we've done, but I seriously just don't give a fuck. If we die, we die, if we live, we live.

I don't know which ones better. 

**The Tributes.**

**D1: **

**Juanita Alba**

**Maximillium Rochester**

**D2:**

**Glenn Elizabeth**

**D3:**

**Sarah (Smo) Morford**

**D4:**

**Julietina Fox**

**D5: **

**Alexander Pastrana**

**D6:**

**George Seibert**

**D7:**

**Ann McDermott**

**Derek France**

**D8:**

**Hazel Nguyen**

**D9:**

**Penelope Starr**

**D10:**

**Arnaldo Armani**

**Cookie Hannah**

**D12:**

**Halloween Meyer**


End file.
